Viewing Jaune Arc: the Elemental Swordsman Discontinued
by Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh
Summary: RWBY, JNPR, Sun, Neptune, Ozpin, Ironwood, Winter and Qrow have all been struck by a fireball. Coincidence? Nah... More like the start of a Watching session through the entire world of Jaune Arc: the Elemental Swordsman. A gift for my friend LordHellPhoenix. [Discontinued]
1. Chapter 0

**_Heya guys! As Remnants of Dimensions is closing in to its end, I am starting this new fic I promised LordHellPhoenix. I do not plan on my SI being in this one except a few moments. LordHellPhoenix agreed to help me with how his SI acts and/or speaks, so this is more or less a joint work._**

 ** _Anyway, enjoy the chapter._**

When had things started to go so wrong?

Oh, well, it had probably started when Yang had thought to go Grimm-hunting all together. At first, they hadn't wandered too far into the Emerald Forest, but being Blake the curious cat she was, she convinced them to investigate what there was beyond the cliffs they'd fought on during initiation. They had almost given up when they'd seen the other side, just an immense forest that disappeared at the horizon, but since Ruby was hungry they had decided to try and find some berries or fruit like they used to do in Patch. And being Weiss the competitive girl she was, she of course accepted Yang's challenge of who could gather more berries. That led them to be incautious, and thus to their current position.

Crescent Rose slashed through the umpteenth Beowolf, its tough hide doing nothing to stop the sharp blade from merrily cutting through and into it with ease. The beast howled and died, slowly disintegrating into Grimm Essence vapour, that honestly smelled worse than Uncle Qrow after he had got himself drunk. She couldn't bear to even stand in the same room as him when he was in such a state.

By her side there was Yang, blowing Beowolf after Beowolf up with her shotgun gauntlets, laughing carefree even as they were being outnumbered and outmatched. They were strong fighters, but no one can go on forever. They were currently grasping at the straws, even if the blonde brawler seemed completely unaffected by their low Aura values and ragged breaths.

A little to the side there was Weiss, her Dust-chambered rapier slashing through the hide of an Ursa with some difficulty, the Dust doing the rest of the work and setting the bear-like Grimm on fire. Apart from the sweat running down her face, her dress was still perfectly unstained and her hair perfectly combed into her usual askew ponytail. Yang never had the heart to tell her it absolutely didn't fit her.

Darting in and out of the melee there was Blake, her blade coated in Grimm blood and her face set in a harsh grimace. She knew things weren't looking good, even as she stabbed a Boarbatusk right in the neck, where the protective armour of the back and of the skull couldn't reach. She had ended up in many difficult situations with the White Fang, and she could tell this was gonna be a very hard fight, one they might possibly not come out from.

A little away from the group, Nora was laying waste of a ground of Skitters, beetle-like Grimm large more or less like a crouching human. Their armour was really hard, but their insides were simply crushed under the girl's powerful swings. She was laughing maniacally, here and there shouting a `SMASH!`, and sometimes sending the Skitters flying with her hits. Despite her carefree outside, though, the girl knew they were in deep shit, as confirmed by the waves of Grimm waiting to overrun them in shadows.

Keeping her position, Pyrrha shot at every Grimm she could and hacked at the ones who would get too near. The champion's expression was schooled in a focused grimace, her eyes darting around to search for the smallest window in the horde of Darkness, trying to find a way out for her and her friends. At her feet, a noticeable puddle of black grime stood out against the lively green of the grass.

Beside her stood Jaune, mind working in overdrive to try and come up with a decent plan to save them from being torn apart. His blade was currently keeping the white head of a King Tajitsu from taking a bite out of his side, the sharp sword inflicting a deep but non-lethal wound every time the snake-like Grimm came too close. Compared to all his friends, the number of Grimm he had slain was miniscule, but at least he hadn't died yet. He hadn't been so sure he would've.

Ren was skirting the direct melee to rain dozens of bullets on the Grimm, at the same time dodging and slashing at the large black head of the King Tajitsu. The green-clad boy was grimacing openly, his feet slipping once or twice on the insidious terrain covered in Grimm goo. He had known the `expedition` would've ended badly, yet he had done nothing to stop it. It was partly his fault if they were in that position. The boy jumped and dodged as he continued to skewer Grimm with bullets, all the while keeping an eye on his friends. They weren't holding on well.

Suddenly, the Grimm seemed to stop. Not just that, they seemed to be slowly walking backwards, as if intimidated by something. Glad to be able to catch their breaths, the eight students gathered all together on the hill's highest point, keeping an eye on the Grimm. However, before they could completely relax, Yang decided to follow the eyes of the Grimm and looked up.

There was a flaming meteor.

Oh, well, nothing to worry about. "So, guys, how do we get out of this mess?" asked Yang, shaking her hair to get the dirt out of it. "Because I'm getting tired and it's also getting dark. We shouldn't be still out, and the professors are gonna give us such a detention we'll never be free to wander until graduation."

Wait a second.

A flaming meteor?

The Grimm shrank back even further as the ball of fire smashed onto the hill, raising a large cloud of smoke as it touched the ground, the Grimm Essence evaporating even before touching the flames. When the smoke cleared a little, the entire hilltop had been reduced to a smouldering, half-liquefied mass of rock.

Of the eight students, not even the weapons remained.

/-/

General Ironwood and his favourite Specialist Winter Schnee were deep in conversation with Professor Ozpin of Beacon when they saw the large ball of fire exploding in the distance, in the Emerald Forest. Both Atlasian just shrugged, chalking it off as yet another overpowered Semblance out of control of one of the students of Beacon. That is, obviously, until a second fireball hit the Beacon Tower, ruining Cinder's plan as it utterly liquefied the CCT. When Goodwitch arrived to assert the damages, only Ozpin's faithful mug could be seen in the wreckage.

/-/

Needless to say, Qrow Branwen didn't even realized to have been hit by a fireball.

/-/

Sun and Neptune were so having a good day. Not only Neptune had managed to snatch a date from a girl... what was her name? Cinder? Nice one, though... but he also managed to have Sun try and date a girl too! He had forced him to send her a letter asking her out. As Neptune had put it: "her hair are black as the night, yet with a streak of feminine pink, and her eyes are of the sweetest magenta I've ever seen." The girl still hadn't replied to the letter. Neptune was tempted to ask her team leader to tell her to reply, but that would be rude.

Neither saw the approaching fireball until the entire East wing of the dormitories was wiped off, liquefied in a second. Thankfully, no one was there, but Cardin Winchester cried a lot for the loss of his beloved teddy bear.

/- Somewhere in the Multiverse -/

"Aaaand done!", exclaimed a tall boy with brown hair and green-brown eyes, stretching to pop his back. Beside him, a slightly taller man with equally brown hair nodded. The boy got up, adjusted his half-broken glasses and sighed. "Well, Phoenix, I guess I'll leave them to you now."

"Did you really have to cause that much damage?" the man enquired, slowly raising an eyebrow.

"Nope," smirked the boy. "But it was fun. See you, Phoenix. You handle the introduction, I handle the documenting. Bye!"

With that, the boy disappeared in a puff of smoke before a fit of coughing was heard and he reappeared. "Sorry, shouldn't have used the smoke." he apologized meekly, this time turning into water and slipping away. The man, now known as Phoenix, smiled slightly as he created a door. The boy had been very kind to let him use the Watching Hall in Vlakha Naroak, his castle, as viewing room. Without hesitation, he opened the door and stepped in.

"Oooof!"

"Argh!"

"Owowowow..."

" _F_ ould _f_ yu remo _f_ e _f_ yur _f_ nee from moi mou _f_?"

"Yikes..."

"What the fuck?!"

"I'm not enough drunk for this..."

"General Ironwood!"

"WHERE'S MY MUG?!"

"Pyrrha, could you stop sitting on my face every time we fall?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Look, Ren, sloths!"

"Nora, those are your breasts, not sloths, I'm not going to look."

The man paused for a second, taking in the whole slew of sentences and slightly shaking his head at a couple of them, especially the ones of Team JNPR. Deciding that simply ignoring them all would be better, he patiently waited for them all to get to their feet before loudly clearing his throat. Everyone jumped and looked at him, a bit spooked by his normal appearance in the middle of people who could easily destroy a small army. He wore a simple dark grey hoodie with a black zipper, that went well with his black-rimmed glasses, behind which brown eyes were slightly shadowed by the brown bangs of his hair. Under the opened zipper they could see a plain black shirt. Simple grey jeans were paired by a black belt and black sneakers. The only two traits that stood out were his sword and his tattoo. The sword appeared to be a large longsword or bastard sword with a black handle, sheathed into its scabbard and slung across his back. The tattoo, instead, was on the back of his right hand, a black fire with black flaming wings sprouting from it, and black rings going down his middle finger's knuckles.

"Hello everyone. My name is LordHellPhoenix, but you can call me Phoenix," he introduced himself with a smile. "A friend of mine and I will be your hosts for the time being."

"Hi! I'm Ruby!" exclaimed the small crimsonette, sticking out a hand for him to shake.

"My name is Weiss Schnee."

"Blake."

"Yang Xiao Long, most awesome girl in the world!"

"I'm Jaune."

"Pyrrha Nikos."

"NOOOOOORAAAA!"

"My name's Lie Ren."

"I am General Ironwood of Atlas."

"And I'm his Specialist Winter Schnee."

Burp. "Qrow."

"Heya dude, I'm Sun!"

"Don't mind him. I'm Neptune."

"WHERE'S MY MUG?!"

Phoenix chuckled slightly as he took a mug full of coffee from behind his back and offered it to the panicking Headmaster. "It was lost, but I thought you might've liked a new one, Medeis."

"Medeis?" everyone asked, looking at Ozpin, who was sipping his coffee with a now relaxed look on his face.

"Yes, Medeis is my first name," he nodded solemnly, uncaring of anything but his mug. "And this coffee is incredible."

"Thanks, it's the one I usually drink when I need a kick," explained Phoenix. "But enough pleasantries. I guess you're asking yourselves why are you here. Well, for two reasons."

He gestured them to sit. They were sure the couches _hadn't_ been there when they had `landed`, but they sat nonetheless. "First things first, are you familiar with the theory of the Multiverse? The collection of all possible dimensions. And every one of those dimensions is a collection of parallel universes, all with some link between one and the other." Many nodded along. "Well, as shocking as this might sound, the theory is true. I am one of the people who volunteered to guard the Multiverse, or at least part of it. I am a Writer of Worlds, one of the Dimensional Guardians, and that means that... well, different people describe it in different ways..."

He took a deep breath. "Some of Us say we're Creators. They say we create worlds, give them life, and then watch as they grow and live... but personally, I don't think so" he stated gravely. Looking at them he shook his head. "We are more Explorers than Creators. We find remote universes no one has discovered yet and we document them, recording what is happening in those worlds. We have immense powers, but there are rules, and that's why you don't know about Us."

Ozpin made a sound of acceptance as the others squinted in confusion. "So... you know what the universes contain, and you document... you _write_ their stories to... what end, if I may?"

"You may," smiled Phoenix. "I write them, because only I can see certain stories. A friend of mine, the same one who's letting me use his stronghold to house you, is a Writer as well, but he can't see the worlds I see, and I can't see the worlds he can. That is why. We write them so that everyone can see them and live them and cherish them. There are too few fairytales in our world. Knowing the stories of the Worlds is often touching, and always an enlightening experience."

Ozpin nodded. "So... you said you have great powers..." he trailed off for a second. "And you said you're housing us here. Why, if I may ask?"

"This is a joint project of both me and my friend. Since only Us Writers can see the records of other Writers, I wanted to break the rules and, this time, let _you_ watch the evolving of a world. Beware: it won't be from the Genesis to the Armageddon. It'll be like a story. A story that I happen to really care for..." he looked away, a small smile on his face. "And the main character of this story is going to be... one of you."

Everyone looked at each other, surprised and shocked. "One of us?" repeated Ruby.

Yang smirked. "It'll be me, right?" she half-asked, half-boasted. "Oh, yeah. I'm awesome."

"Actually, no, it won't be you, even if you will be present," replied Phoenix, smiling. "But someone else you know pretty well. A kind soul who will shine in the night, a beacon of light in the darkness... Jaune Arc, the Elemental Swordsman."

Jaune's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Me?!" he choked out, shocked. Everyone else was shocked as well. Even Pyrrha, who had always had faith in the knight, couldn't believe what the Writer had just said. Him, being the main character of an entire world?

Weiss, though, had a different reaction. A very different one. "Him?!" she exclaimed. "Why would a failure like him be so important?! Why would he be even _mentioned?!_ He's worth less than the dirt on my shoes, why did you think of him as someone important?!"

Brown eyes narrowed at them an instant before Phoenix was enveloped in a roaring inferno of flames. His eyes had disappeared in the flames, but his voice hadn't. "You are too full of yourself, and too full of spite, Weiss Schnee," he stated threateningly, and the heiress shrank. "Jaune Arc is more than enough. Some of the best stories of Worlds I've seen focus on him. He is definitely worthy of being important." The flames subsides, leaving an angry but otherwise normal Phoenix glaring at Weiss. "Also, in his case, power and importance usually comes with pain and sufferance. I've seen a world where he had to see his whole family being butchered in front of his eyes and break down, being adopted first by an assassin and then by a criminal. And I can assure you, that story is not something _worth less than the dirt on your shoes_. Another story my friend told me about has him having to take care, _literally take care_ of his whole family for ten years, suffering and sacrificing everything and in the end, having to kill his own father to protect his sisters from him. I've seen worlds where he loses his emotions, where he was tortured for Oum knows how long, where he was experimented upon, where he loses _everything_ and _everyone_... You can't even imagine the beginning of how much pain I've seen in the eyes of Jaune Arcs of different universes."

Everyone had turned paler and paler the more he had continued to speak, no one more than Jaune himself, who looked ready to pass out. Phoenix sighed as he looked at him. "But hey, cheer up, I've also seen happy worlds. This world I'm gonna show you... well, it's a mix. But I've seen happy worlds as well. It's just that a couple of friends of mine like to go search for the darkest of worlds, since there are few who do."

"That's nice," Jaune squeaked.

Phoenix sighed. "Khor's been rubbing off on me," he grumbled under his breath. "I'm starting to be as dark and creepy as he acts..."

 ** _So..._**

 ** _This is a viewing/reading fic, as you might've noticed. As opposite to Remnants of Dimensions, I won't be taking requests. I am doing this for my friend LordHellPhoenix and no one else. He asked and I said "Yeah, why not?"_**

 ** _Anyway, as the title might suggest this is a viewing fic for Jaune Arc: the Elemental Swordsman (by LordHellPhoenix). Most of the writing will be done by me, Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh, but the chapters containing Phoenix will be overlooked and possibly modified by him, so I can more or less call this a joint effort to make a good viewing fic. Have a good day, everyone!_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	2. Chapter 1

**_Heya guys! Let's see how you like this chapter!_**

"So, what happens now?" asked Yang as they saw a large screen, previously gone unnoticed, lighting up on the wall.

"Now, my dear Yang, you will all watch what the screen will show," explained Phoenix. "It's funny how, at this very moment in another room of this castle, other you are... never mind. I'm just rambling. So, the screen will show you about the world I told you about. But now I have to go."

Ruby frowned. "Why do you have to go?" she asked. "Can't you watch it with us?"

Phoenix smirked. "Oh, I've already watched it with you..." he murmured so softly not even Blake or Sun could hear him. "I am the one who documented this world, Ruby. I know what will happen. Sometimes I even think I know _too well_ what will happen."

With a final parting wave, his form was enveloped in flames and burned brightly. When the flames dissipated, he was gone. Instead, the screen began colouring.

 **Jaune Arc had his eyes closed and was leaning against the wall of the airship taking him and many other students to Beacon Academy to begin their training to become Huntsmen and Huntresses. He was wearing his signature black hoodie with a silver zipper that ran up the front of it, along with dark blue jeans, black steel toed boots and his black fingerless gloves. He also had his white greaves that covered his knees, vambracers and a rerebrace on his left arm, along with his chest plate that covered his chest and upper back. Most were excited but he had other things on his mind, specifically keeping his breakfast down. Trying to avoid an embarrassing first impression to all his new peers, Jaune was mentally trying to ease his nausea with little results. He was about to resort to his Aura until a voice distracted him."Jaune? Are you alright? You're looking kinda green!"Jaune opened his eyes and looked down at the orange hair girl looking up at him with mild concern. Nora Valkyrie, his longtime friend and honorary sister, they had been together for years now. Along with their other friend and Jaune's honorary brother Lie Ren, who was standing next to him and looking at him with his usual stoic face. These three had been the best of friends since they day they met and all trained by the same person that taught them their skills. Despite the tough times they all shared, he wouldn't trade a second of that time. With a sigh and a small grin Jaune reached over to gently pat her on the head, something he's done since they were ten. "Don't worry, Nora. Just another bout with my motion sickness."**

"Oh, so he has motion sickness in this as well..." commented Yang.

"We've been friends for so long?" asked Ren, and Nora completed. "He's a third us! We've been alone all together, so we haven't really been alone! Yay!"

 **Realization dawned on Nora and she quickly stepped back. "Motion sickness? That's not good! Last time you hurled everywhere! Don't do it on me! Maybe Ren, he's wearing green so no one would know! But then I wouldn't be able to hug him! That's even worse!" Nora started to go on one of her usual tirades, which led to Ren sighing and Jaune chuckling at their usual antics."I'll be fine Nora. I was about to use the Aura technique Ren and I know to help out with the symptoms. That was until you distracted me." he gave her a smirk.**

"Ren, do you really know a way to do that?" asked Jaune, looking at the ninja. He smirked mysteriously.

"Yes, I do," he nodded. "But I'll tell you only if _you_ handle Nora for a day."

Jaune looked conflicted.

 **"Oh, that makes sense. We'll leave you to it. Come on, Ren, let's explore the ship!" She quickly grabbed Ren by the arm and started to lead him away. Ren quickly gave him a look that said, 'You owe me one.' Over the years, the three of them learned to communicate by giving secret looks to each other, usually to have a private conversation from others or even the third member of their group. Jaune replied with the look that said, 'I know, I know.' He smiled at the two before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes again. He started to slowly use his Aura. He would start by flaring it at the centre** **of his chest and slowly spread it outwards to every part of his body. Once he did that he would send the Aura back to his center before repeating in a very slow, rhythmic fashion. He could already feel his nausea lessening after a full minute of this treatment, another few cycles and he should be fine for the rest of the journey. He was about to finish when he got the feeling that someone was watching him. He opened his eyes and looked around until his eyes landed on a short girl across from him with red tipped black hair, clad in black and red. She was standing next to a blonde hair girl with shorts and a tan jacket. When she realized he was looking at her, her eyes widened and she quickly looked down at the ground. She kept taking glances at him. 'Must be nervous.' He thought. He gave her a reassuring smile and gave her a small wave. Her eyes widened again but this time she returned the smile and waved back. The blonde hair girl took notice of this, she looked over at him and gave him a critical stare. Not sure how to respond Jaune was about to smile when he felt a sudden wave of nausea. He grimaced and quickly closed his eyes to resume his treatment before he had an embarrassing moment. Almost done, he was distracted by a clearly angry woman's voice coming from in front of him.**

"That was definitely me," stated Yang.

"What's with you and being angry at me on the airship?" sighed Jaune.

"Well, you did vomit on her shoes..." reasoned Weiss.

"Yeah, and you still have to pay me back for those boots!".

Jaune groaned.

 **"Hey, what's your problem!?"Jaune quickly put up his hand to stop her. Keeping his eyes closed and finishing up. Ten seconds later his nausea lessened again to a very manageable level, he exhaled and opened his eyes to see both girls that were standing across from him, now standing directly in front of him. The blonde was clearly angry while the brunette was looking between the two of them nervously.**

"His problem?" asked Ren, confused. "But he did nothing..."

"Yeah, what's _your_ problem?" replied Nora, defending her Fearless Leader.

 **"Sorry about that. Can I help you two with something?" Jaune asked genuinely and was curious what had happened.**

 **The blonde quickly pointed her finger in his face, "You better start explaining. First you wave to my sister and when I look over at you, you give us a disgusted look? What the hell is that about!?"Jaune looked at her in confusion before he realized what had happened. He bowed his head slightly before saying, "I'm sorry for that, I wasn't exactly feeling well and closed my eyes to help with the issue. I didn't mean to give off that impression and am sorry that I insulted you."**

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, he's right," he agreed. "It wasn't voluntary but it was insulting nonetheless."

Yang huffed. "Yeah, except you didn't apologize for my boots..."

"Hey!" exclaimed the Arc son. "I was throwing up, and after that you immediately ran off! I told you as soon as I could!"

 **The blonde was taken back for a second. She expected him to give some half-baked excuse but instead he gave her a genuine apology. She quickly regained he composure before continuing slightly embarrassed, "Oh. Um, it's alright. Sorry that I jumped to a conclusion."Jaune raised his head and smiled, "I guess we're even then." He held out his hand to her, "My name's Jaune. Jaune Arc."**

"No flirty one-liner?" Yang, Weiss and Blake all asked, making him groan.

"Girls, I said that _one_ time," he complained. "Stop that..."

 **The blonde took his hand and grinned, "Yang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you." She let go of his hand and patted the head of the girl standing beside her, "This is my little sister, Ruby Rose." Ruby started to swat away at her sister's hands in embarrassment before she saw Jaune's hand in front of her and looked up at him smiling at her.**

 **"It's nice to meet you Ruby."**

"Well, at least someone who doesn't treat me like a kid," grumbled Ruby.

"I'm sure your teammates will have realized that by now, Ruby," Jaune tried to reassure her, only for her to roll her eyes. "Ehm... maybe they will in the future?"

 **Ruby hesitantly took his hand before smiling back and happily responding, "Nice to meet you too." They let go of each other's hands before Ruby asked, "Are you here by yourself?" She looked around for anyone that was with him. Jaune just shook his head.**

 **"No, I'm actually here with my two best friends. They're around here somewhere. They left me alone to deal with my issue."Both girls looked at him quizzically before Yang asked, "Issue? What issue?"**

 **Jaune scratched the back of his head before sheepishly saying, "I may suffer from motion sickness." He saw the two take a step back before he sighed and continued, "I used my Aura to sort it before you two came over here. Don't worry, your shoes are safe." He smirked at them. The two smiled weakly before the three had a quick laugh. When they all stopped Jaune had his own question to ask, "Not to sound rude but aren't you a bit young to attend Beacon, Ruby?"**

"Yeah, I wondered about that as well!" exclaimed Sun, and Neptune nodded beside him. "You don't look seventeen. And if you complain about being treated as a kid you're probably younger."

"I'm fifteen, I'm not a child, and I drink _milk!_ " pouted Ruby.

"Ruby, saying you drink milk is childish," sighed Weiss.

"What's wrong with drinking milk?" asked Jaune. "I drink milk as well."

"Well, at least you don't go around boasting about it," noted Blake.

 **She looked at him nervously before saying, "Actually, I was moved ahead two years. It's exciting but I'm gonna miss my friends back at Signal though."**

 **Yang put her arm around her sister to comfort her. "Don't worry Ruby. You can always make more."**

 **"It was hard enough the first time."**

"And yet now you have all of us as your friends," stated Jaune, sending her a bright smile. "I'd say you aren't that bad, are you?"

 **Jaune looked at her sadly before smiling, "Well, you have me as your friend. That is if you want to." Jaune was scratching the back of his head nervously before he felt Ruby grab his other hand with both of hers. He looked down to see her jumping up and down happily.**

 **"I would love that! Thank you, thank you, Jaune!" He chuckled in response before Ruby and Yang started to have a conversation. He wasn't paying much attention because he was just looking at Ruby's silver eyes. He never met someone with silver eyes before and found them magnificent. The held so much hope and happiness in them. He felt like he could look into them forever. He was snapped out of his stupor when Ruby got his attention, "Jaune?" she was not making eye contact and seemed nervous.**

 **"Sorry, Ruby, I was deep in thought. What did you say?"**

 **"You've been staring at me for a while now. I was just wondering why?"**

 **Realization dawned on him again, "I'm sorry, Ruby, I've never seen someone with silver eyes before. I was distracted by how beautiful they are."**

Jaune felt himself shrinking as Yang slowly turned to face him. "Arc?" she called out in a frightening voice. "What was that?"

"H-Hey, i-it's another universe, n-not this one!" he defended himself, and that seemed to snap Yang out of it.

"Yeah, you're right..." she nodded, satisfied. Jaune then noticed the dejected look on Ruby's face.

"Don't worry Ruby, your eyes _are_ beautiful," he reassured her. "And I've really never met someone with silver eyes before. They must be incredibly rare."

She smiled sadly. "Yes, I got them from my mother, Summer," she explained before looking down. "She's dead, though..." Jaune smiled sadly at her and hugged her briefly.

"Well, then she must be incredibly proud of you now," he said, and his smile managed to break through Ruby's mood and make her smile as well, and nod.

 **His eyes widened at what he said. So did Yang's and Ruby's, before Ruby turned the same shade of red as her cloak before pulling it over her head. "Oh man, that came out wrong. I didn't mean to say that. I mean, I did but not that way. I mean, not that they aren't beautiful because they are but, you know. I'm gonna shut up now." His face turned red and he looked away.**

Yang began to snicker before doubling over in laughters. "Oh my Oum, you two are by far the most awkward people I've ever seen!" she laughed. Both Ruby and Jaune were now red and unable to look in each other's eyes. Pyrrha seemed to be twitching a little.

 **There were a few seconds of awkward silence before he heard a snicker. He looked back just in time to see Yang doubled over before she started laughing like crazy. "Oh my Oum, you two are by far the most awkward people I've ever seen!" Jaune and Ruby looked at each other before they joined Yang in laughing. Jaune just met these two girls but he felt that they would get along just fine.**

Yang had stopped laughing when her other self had done and said exactly what she had, but the others were smiling.

"So, in this reality we get off a better foot than in our own, I'd say," said Jaune.

Yang's eyes narrowed at him. "You'd better not think too much about _getting off_ with my sister," she growled, causing groans to come from everyone.

"Yang, first not everything is a sexual reference," Jaune scolded her like he used to do with his sisters when they became too crude. "Second, I'm not a pervert nor a molester."

Yang's eyes didn't relax. "I'm keeping an eye on you," she promised.

"You'd better keep your eyes on the screen, Ms Xiao Long," advised Ozpin, taking a sip from his mug. "It's not everyone you get to watch another world going on with its story."

 ** _Yang is overprotective. Oh, right, that's normal._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	3. Chapter 2

**_And here there is the second (third, actually, but the first didn't have viewing) chapter of Viewing Jaune Arc: the Elemental Swordsman. Now that I think of it, I could've picked a shorter title..._**

 ** _Anyway, enjoy the chapter!_**

They would've started another viewing sessions, but there was something going on that stopped it.

Said something began when Yang had needed to go to the bathroom a few minutes earlier. Nothing strange in that: the opposite, _not_ going to the bathroom is strange. Everyone needs to use it to be healthy. The problem was that when she was coming back, her boots had glowed with flames and turned into brand new boots. Again, nothing wrong with that. They had been teleported in that room by being hit by a giant fireball, so two new boots weren't such a big deal. The point was that inside one of those boots, Yang had found a note that said.

 _"Here are some new boots, now leave him alone about it. Holding a grudge against something so small is just petty. You're better than that. Signed, Phoenix"_

Beside the signature there was Phoenix's symbol, the same a his tattoo on his right hand. As soon as they read the note, though, it caught fire and burned to a crisp. It wasn't hard to imagine who was the `him` mentioned. Yang had scratched her head as she had turned to apologize to Jaune.

From that moment on, things had gone for the worse.

Between Yang trying to apologize but not really being used to it, and Jaune trying to tell her it was fine, it had been his fault and she didn't need to apologize, all the other Watchers were getting highly bored. At first, it had been funny to see Yang order Jaune to stop saying it was fine by threatening him, and that led her to try and apologize about the threatening as well.

All in all, Yang was being as socially awkward as Ruby, and was apologizing as much as Pyrrha. Jaune was trying to be a gentleman like his father had taught him and take the blame for everything. His father always did say it was the only thing that kept his mother from breaking up with him, not like Jaune ever believe that, obviously. His parents obviously loved each other, even when they `sparred` in the courtyard.

"Okay, okay, we got that you're sorry and you think you're at fault," had finally interjected Ironwood, stepping between the two. "Can we just drop it now? We're getting bored."

Yang and Jaune had looked at each other before they had bodily thrown Ironwood across the room. One for daring to interrupt her apology, and the other for daring to interrupt him trying to take the blame.

Finally, a good fifteen minutes later, Ruby had stepped in and stopped the argument. Both Yang and Jaune were out of breath for the long argument. Still, they made peace and fell on the same couch, leaning against each out, panting heavily. Blake blushed as very dirty thoughts began swirling in her mind. Finally, _finally_ , the viewing could start.

 **Not long after Jaune got to know Yang and Ruby, they all arrived at Beacon. He told the sisters to go on without him and waited for Ren and Nora to return from their 'adventure'. They showed up not long after and Nora regaled him on the adventure they had meeting their fellow classmates and finding her eternal rival! Jaune looked at Ren for some kind of input but Ren only shrugged. Either he was still irritated that Jaune left him to the devices of Nora or had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Maybe both.**

"Probably just someone who tried to shut her up," shrugged Ren, not really caring for the fate of said student, had that been the case.

"Unlikely," commented Ozpin. "As energetic as Ms Valkyrie can be, she wouldn't antagonize a student like that. Especially not in such a short period of time."

Ren gave him a look that screamed: "You don't know her, she could totally do that."

 **"Alright, alright. Come on you two, let's see what Beacon has to offer us." Jaune said cheerily before leading the three of them off the ship and they all stopped to stare at Beacon. It appeared more like a castle than a school. Jaune was about to say exactly that.**

 **"Oh my Oum, we're living at a castle now!" Until Nora beat him to it, with twice as much energy and triple the volume. "Do you think a wizard lives in that tower?! Oh, where there are wizards there are dragons! Where are the dragons! I'm gonna find them and slay them, or tame them! We would be awesome if we flew into battle on our own dragon! Let's go!" Before either Jaune or Ren could stop her, Nora already had Magnhild in hammer mode and was running off into the school and knocking over everyone in her way.**

"Is she always like this?" asked Ironwood, still sore after having been thrown. Being half-cyborg and with Aura helped only so far.

"Yes, she is, but she is learning how to control herself... most of the times," replied Jaune.

Qrow burped and then tipped an invisible hat to the members of Team JNPR. "Props to you, kids, for taking care of her."

"I'm not that bad..." grumbled Nora, but no one heeded her complaint.

 **"NORA!" they both shouted and took off after her moving as fast as they could. Halfway to the retreating form of Nora, Jaune caught something in the corner of his eye. He quickly looked to see Ruby apparently being yelled at by another girl in white. He would've left it alone until he saw the girl in white thrashing her hand around and seeing a red mist forming between the two. His eyes widened when he realized what it was. Dust. Not stopping he turned towards the two of them and kicked off with his Aura to reach them. He appeared between them in a blur with his right hand extended. The mist of dust glowed red for a second before it all turned a dull white before it blew away. Jaune sighed as he put his arm down and stood up straight. "That was almost too close." He chuckled and looked at Ruby. "You okay, Ruby?" Before she could respond, they were interrupted by a shrill scream.**

"That must've been my other self's Semblance," mumbled Jaune, looking at the screen with analysing eyes. "Apparently, it let him de-energize Dust. I wonder if he can also actually re-utilize the power he negates or if he just desaturate the Dust of its powers..."

 **"What do think you are doing, you dolt!?" Jaune turned around to see the other girl glaring at him. Now closer he could see that she was a very beautiful girl. Like an angel made of snow but her attitude was definitely a turn off.**

"I swear, Arc, if your other self starts calling me Snow Angel as well..." menaced Weiss.

 **He smiled at her and calmly stated, "Saving my friend and you, Snow Angel. You were throwing around some fire dust and if I didn't interfere, you two probably would've been blown off the cliffside."**

Jaune screamed as Weiss began chasing after him, screeching furiously. Fortunately she didn't have Myrtenaster, or he would've ended up pretty badly hurt.

 **She was taken back, not by the nickname or his bluntness but by his eyes. They would've been the perfect shade of sapphire blue if it weren't for the tinges of crimson mixed in them. And were the tinges glowing slightly? She quickly regained her composure and looked down at her hand to see the vial of dust had a somewhat damaged seal. She was embarrassed to say the least. She looked at the two before huffing a response.**

Jaune stopped, and Weiss crashed into him, looking at the screen. "So he appears to be able to somehow absorb at least part of the Dust, or at least his eyes change when he nullifies Dust. An interesting Semblance to say the least. Who knows, maybe that is my Semblance as well..."

Pyrrha smiled. "I'm sure we'll find yours out very soon, Jaune."

 **"You appear to be right. I made a mistake and you saved me from the embarrassing and dangerous repercussions, so I thank you."**

 **"No problem but I think you owe my friend here an apology as well." Jaune stated as he motioned to Ruby behind him.**

 **She stared at Ruby for a few seconds before looking away "I'm sorry."**

"Oh, look, the Ice Queen is thawing a little!" exclaimed Yang, smirking. "Maybe this time you will actually be friends instead of frienemies!"

"Frienemies isn't even a word," grumbled Weiss.

 **Ruby nervously giggled and sheepishly grinned, "It's alright. I was partially responsible for the accident." Ruby looked at Jaune who was looking back at her with a grin. She noticed the new red in his eyes before they disappeared and she decided it was a trick of the light. She silently mouthed 'Thank you' to him and he just smiled and nodded to her. By the time they turned around the girl in white was walking away. Before she got too far, Jaune spoke to her, "Think we could get your name?"**

 **She looked back at him in shock. "You don't know who I am?"**

 **Jaune shrugged, "Sorry but no. I've spent most of my time training outside the Kingdoms, so I don't keep up with recent events." Ruby chuckled at that.**

" _You_ didn't have that excuse, Arc," growled the Schnee heiress.

"Weiss, I think that's enough," Winter scolded her. "Stop antagonizing the boy. He hasn't done anything to earn your ire, at least not at the moment."

A vein pulsed on Weiss's forehead, but she remained silent.

 **With her shock gone, she turned back around and gave a small curtsy, "I'm Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company."**

 **Jaune made his own small bow, "Jaune Arc, a pleasure to meet you."**

 **Weiss grinned at him, "Likewise."**

 **Ruby stood beside Jaune and did a clumsier bow, "I'm Ruby Rose. Nice to meet you." Which made Jaune smile slightly more.**

 **Weiss looked at her with a bit of irritation "Nice to meet you." She quickly turned around and walked away.**

 **The two turned to each other, "Seems more like an Ice Queen rather than a Snow Angel." Jaune jokingly said which caused Ruby to giggle. Jaune looked around for a second. "What happened to Yang? Weren't you two together?"**

"Even that stupid title is better than what you call me..." mumbled Weiss.

"But I thought you liked being called Snow Angel..." asked Neptune, confused.

"Not by everyone," replied the heiress. Winter frowned.

"Weiss, stop being so bossy and... _father-like!_ " she told her, making her shrink. "Whatever Mr Arc may have done, I'm sure he doesn't deserve such a treatment!"

"He asks me out twice a day!" retorted Weiss.

"Well, then I must compliment his determination," snarked Winter. "Because if you treat him like this every time he does, I'm surprised he hasn't given up yet."

"He likes me only for my title and my money!" shouted Weiss. "Everyone does!"

Jaune looked at her with hurt, but Yang's hand clamped over his mouth as the blonde brawler replied in his stead. "Hey, Weiss Cream, have you forgotten that he didn't even know your name when he first began flirting with you?" she asked innocently, with Jaune struggling to break free of her grip. With absolutely no success.

Weiss opened and closed her mouth, the new piece of information not fitting in with her view of Jaune Arc. Who, meanwhile, trying biting Yang's hand to force her to let go. Too used to Ruby doing the same thing, she didn't even flinch.

 **Ruby pouted and Jaune saw that as adorable. "She ditched me and that's what lead to this whole event." She said sadly.**

 **Jaune gently patted her on her head and Ruby looked up in minor shock, "Sorry, may not count for much but I'm still here." He smiled reassuringly at her and Ruby returned it.**

 **"It counts." She said before blushing slightly then she remembered something. "Weren't you waiting for your friends?"**

 **Jaune's eyes widened before he facepalmed "I was, until Nora ran off and we had to chase after her. Well, that was til I had to play hero." He smirked at her which earned him a small shove. He chuckled and looked around' "Oh well, Ren probably caught up to her considering the lack of explosions. So, wanna hang out for the time being?"**

"Considering the lack of explosions?" repeated Ironwood, stunned.

"Is she always like that?" asked Winter.

Ren's, Pyrrha's and Jaune's gazes met, and they were filled with desperation. "Yes. Yes, she is."

 **Ruby nodded quickly and they headed off towards the main entrance. Ruby noticed something on Jaune's back she didn't see until now. It looked like a black, metal sheathe for a greatsword on his back but with no handle in sight. Was this his weapon? Because if it was, it seemed odd. Eventually her curiosity won out.**

 **"Hey, Jaune, is that your weapon on your back?" she pointed up at it.**

 **Jaune stopped and turned around to face her, "Yup. Why?"**

 **She shuffled her feet nervously, "Well, it looks like a giant sword but it has no handle. It doesn't really make sense to me. I'm sorry, that sounded wrong. I'm just a weapon nerd." She looked down at the ground dejectedly, as if Jaune was gonna make fun of her or yell at her for insulting his weapon.**

"Jaune would never do that, Ruby," Pyrrha reassured her, since Jaune was still being silenced by Yang.

"But if this is an alternative version of him, things might be different. He's already proven himself far more apt for the job of a Huntsman. Maybe he will," stated Blake, not realizing she had just terrified Ruby and depressed Jaune.

 **Jaune just looked at her with a small smile. "Well, you're half right."**

 **She looked up at him "What?"**

 **He just smiled at her, he raised his right hand and closed it into a fist and spun around for Ruby to get a look at his back. The giant sheathe split into five: the two on the edges folded out to a 45-degree angle on either side of him, while the two middle-center folded out to be just behind his shoulders and the final stayed directly over his spine. Once they were in position, handles popped out of all the sheathes, ready to be wielded. He looked back over his shoulder with his smile still there. "There's not just one sword."**

"Oh, it's so cool!" exclaimed Ruby before an idea hit her and she basically teleported herself in front of Jaune. "Maybe we could really create it! We'll ask Phoenix for the blueprints when he comes back, and then we'll be able to actually fight like that!"

Jaune's raised eyebrow said it all, really. It spoke of how he would need to learn how to fight all over again, and he already wasn't a good fighter. It spoke of how he lacked the other Jaune's Semblance. And it particularly spoke of how he didn't trust himself with anything more complicated than a plain sword and shield combo.

Ruby pouted.

 **Ruby stared wide eyed at the blades on his back before she squealed in a high pitch voice. "Oh my Oum, those look so cool! Why do you use five swords? How do you get the sheathes to move like that? Why do the handles go into the blades? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"**

 **Jaune turned back to her with his hands raised in mock surrender, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Ruby, stop and breathe for a second and I'll tell you." He chuckled slightly while the swords return to their standby mode on his back. He waited for he to calm down a little bit before he decided to explain. "I use five swords because each one uses a different kind of dust I use to help fight. The servos on the outside of the sheathes respond to both of my gloves." He explained as he showed her "By applying pressure with a finger and slight 'pressure' with my Aura, the metal rings on the gloves sense this and send a signal for what sword or swords I want to use." He demonstrates by closing his right pinky with a slight white glow of his aura. This time though the sheathes stayed together and just rotated until they were over his right shoulder. Finally, the handle of the right most blade deployed. "The handles go inside to make it easier for me to draw a sword without the others getting in the way." He drew the sword in a split second to reveal it fully. It looked like a traditional single-edged short sword from the old knight tales Yang used to read to her. The handle, pommel and cross guard were made of a black metal, while the blade was a silver metal. The broad side of the sword had what appeared to be a circuit-like design on them that glowed yellow along with the edge of the blade. "Also, it looks pretty cool in my opinion."**

"Nice design and optimal metalwork," nodded Ruby, taking notes on the weapons. "It's really an incredible weapon combo. Are you sure you don't want to craft you those, Jaune? I totally could, you know?"

Jaune's eyebrow remained raised.

 **Ruby just stared for a few seconds with wide eyes before she closed the distance between them in a rush of rose petals and was just examining the sword, gloves and sheathes. "Cool. You must've put a lot of work into them." She said in what seemed like awe.**

 **Jaune sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "It took some time to design them properly. Took me the better part of a year to get it right. Especially because I added more swords. This one I'm holding was the first one I built." He looked down at it with a small smile. "I named her Raikiri."**

 **She looked up at him with a bit of confusion, "Raikiri? What does that mean?"**

 **He smiled at her before taking a few steps back. He pulled his sword back readying for a swing and as he did, the blade started to be surrounded with lightning. He swung fast upwards and the lightning arced off the blade into the sky above. He rested the blade on his shoulder and turned back at her. "Roughly means Lightning Cutter."**

 **Ruby was just staring "Oh…"**

 **Jaune chuckled again, "You gonna be okay Ruby?"**

 **She quickly shook her head to clear her mind. "Yeah. Just was a bit overwhelmed." She said bashfully.**

 **"So, you've seen what I use. Can I see what your weapon is?" Her eyes got a gleam of pride before she reached behind her and pulled out her weapon that unfolded into a giant scythe then slammed it into the ground. Jaune jumped slightly at that and stared at the short girl wielding the giant weapon. "That appears to be a scythe." Still in shock.**

 **She grinned and cocked it, "It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle!"**

 **"You put a gun into a giant scythe?" he said in mild shock.**

 **She smiled widely, "Yup!"**

 **Jaune put his head down and shook it slightly with a small smile. "I thought I went overboard designing mine."**

 **She got slightly nervous with that, "Maybe I did go a tad overboard."**

"Had you been a male, I would've said you were overcompensating, sis," smirked Yang.

"Well, there are surely a few boys in Beacon with giant weapons..." shrugged Sun. "I don't think you would dare tell that to the giant of Team CFVY, though."

"Even I have a survival instincts," grumbled the blonde brawler.

Jaune still had his mouth covered.

 **Jaune waved the comment off, "Nah, it suits you"**

 **She smiled, "Thanks, Jaune." She folded up her weapon and returned it behind her back. Jaune sheathed Raikiri than thought of something. "What did you name her?"**

 **"Crescent Rose."**

 **"Good name." The two smiled at each other and started to resume their walk. They were in a comfortable silence until Ruby spoke up.**

 **"Do you know where we're going?"**

 **Jaune simply shrugged, "I was just going where I saw everyone else go. Hopefully, we don't get lost." He looked down and smirked at her and she returned it with her own smile before they entered the main entrance to see all the other first years. "Well, either we're in the right place or everyone else is lost as well." Ruby giggled slightly at that.**

"Well, if I'm not wrong Qrow _did_ get lost during his first day of Beacon," smirked Ozpin. "Didn't you, Qrow?"

He grumbled something in response.

 **What got their attention next was Yang waving in the front row shouting, "Ruby, I saved you a seat!"**

 **Ruby was about to say something to Jaune when something else caught their attention. The person next to Yang was jumping up and down, waving her arms and shouting, "Jaune! We're over here!" The two looked at each other and chuckled before they made their way to the front row, Ruby standing beside Yang while Jaune stood between Yang and Nora. Nora looked at Ruby then Jaune then back to Ruby before she asked innocently, "Jaune? Is she your new girlfriend?"**

 **Ruby blushed right before Jaune sighed tiredly before turning to Nora. "No, Nora, she isn't my girlfriend." He turned to Ruby "No offense, Ruby. Nothing against you but I know a relationship between us wouldn't work out."**

 **Ruby was taken back by his bluntness. Right before Yang grabbed Jaune by his collar and pulled him down to eye level, which were red now. "What exactly does that mean, what's the problem with my sister?!"**

Jaune yelped mutely as Yang's grip on his mouth tightened, and Ruby blushed red.

 **Nora and Ren were about to intervene before Jaune raised a hand to say 'It's fine.' Jaune just looked into Yang's eyes with a neutral stare, "I never said Ruby would be the problem."**

Yang's grip relaxed in surprise. "Wha'?" she said.

"Evidently he doesn't consider himself boyfriend material," commented Ironwood. "There's pain hidden in his eyes. Maybe it's that."

 **Yang was taken back by this but before she could continue Ozpin came out on stage and gave his speech. Afterwards, the group of five left and were just talking. Once they got to the courtyard, Jaune got all their attentions. "Okay, introductions. Ruby, Yang, these are my best friends and fellow students. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Ren, Nora, this is my new friend Ruby Rose and her sister Yang Xiao Long." They all said their hellos before Yang took notice of something.**

 **"So what, I'm just Ruby's sister? Not your friend?"**

 **Jaune looked up and thought for a second, "Maybe. We never said we were friends and you've tried to knock my head off, how many times now?" he smirked at her, "But seriously, it'd be great to have you as a friend, Yang."**

 **Yang got a devilish grin before she leaned over at him provocatively, "Hmmmm, just friends? You wouldn't want anything more?" Everyone was taken back by this and Ruby was about to yell at Yang when Jaune said in the same neutral voice as before.**

 **"Yes, Yang. I would love it if you were my friend, but no, nothing more."**

"Again that voice," mumbled Winter. "I won't say that it's good to accept such an obvious advance from someone who's basically a stranger, but his response wasn't just uninterested. Something from his past is the reason for his actions."

 **Ruby was shocked again and Yang's jaw almost dropped. She expected him to get all flustered, especially with the awkwardness he showed on the airship. But instead, he sounded…. dead inside. Why? Before she could bring it up, he was already on his way towards the ballroom. "We'd better hurry before all the best spots are taken." They all looked among each other before chasing after him.**

* * *

 **Later that night, Ren, Nora and Jaune were all sitting with each other, relaxing before bed. Well, Jaune and Ren were. Nora passed out almost as soon as she sat down on her sleeping bag, wearing her usual shorts and t-shirt. Jaune was in a black tank top and blue shorts while Ren was wearing green pajama pants and a grey t-shirt, "Yeah, that was my day. I wonder if this is a usual welcome to Beacon?"**

 **Ren merely chuckled, "Doubtful. Just your luck. Not sure if it's good or bad yet though."**

"That's definitely Jauney's luck," nodded Nora. "But it's usually bad luck..."

 **Jaune sighed, "Of course you'd say that. Well, I'm going to bed. Night, Ren." Jaune went to lay down before Ren gently grabbed his arm. "Yes?"**

 **"You might wanna discharge your Semblance first. Don't want your sleeping bag to catch fire, again."**

"Again?" repeated Ironwood, raising an eyebrow.

Ren shrugged. "Nora set a forest on fire, once, while experimenting with Maghnild's grenades," he recalled. "Setting a sleeping bag on fire won't be the strangest thing I've ever seen."

 **His eyes widened, "You just saved me again, Ren."**

 **"Part of my job. Good night, Jaune." He laid down and almost immediately, Nora rolled over and hugged him.**

 **Jaune just merely chuckled and got into a meditative position and started to discharge his Semblance. Before he heard what sounded like a fight. He looked up and saw Ruby and Yang fighting in front of a girl clad in black. He was going to ignore it until Weiss came over and started yelling at them. Jaune decided to go over before they woke everyone up.**

 **He got over to them and tried to get their attention. "Girls, girls!" They were either ignoring him or just didn't hear him. He sighed again before seeing the candle by the girl in black. He thought for a second before shrugging, "Why not." He reached out his hand and his eyes glowed with that glint of red from before. The flame from the candle flew to his hand and hovered there. He looked up to see all four of the girls looking at him with shock. He smiled, "Now that I have your attention, it's kinda late girls. Why don't you just call it a night and if you're still mad, you can continue to fight when you're more rested. Deal?" They all nodded at him dumbly before his smile widened. "Sweet." He crouched down by the girl in black before he brought his hand back to the candle where the fire went back to its original position and his eyes went back to their usual blue. "Sorry if I disturbed your reading."**

Jaune, having freed himself from Yang's grip as the realities went on, caressed his chin, pensive. "It appears his Semblance allows him to re-utilize the power he steals from Dust to influence the Dust's relative element. In this case, Fire. That explains the Dust-draining part. It's a peculiar and very interesting Semblance. Not just that, it's a very powerful one as well..."

 **She was still staring at him, "It's okay. No harm done. Um?"**

 **"Jaune. My name's Jaune."**

 **"Blake."**

 **"A pleasure to meet you." He smiled before he got up and started to walk back over to his sleeping bag.**

 **"Wait, Jaune, was that your Semblance?" Ruby asked.**

 **Jaune turned back around to see all four of them were waiting for his answer. He just smirked, "That would be telling." He turned back around before waving at them, "Good night, ladies." He went back to his sleeping bag before promptly falling asleep.**

"But he's a meanie!" exclaimed Ruby. "He didn't tell us his Semblance!"

"Maybe he didn't want to tell you in case you didn't end up on his team," proposed Sun. "You know, telling someone who won't be on your team might give them an edge over you in combat."

"Weiss, are you okay?" asked Blake, looking at the heiress. "You've been really quiet for this session..."

"It's nothing," she sniffed imperiously. "Just... contemplating past mistakes and possible missed chances."

Everyone got the meaning, except Jaune of course, and Pyrrha shot her a quick glare. Jaune, puzzled and as dense as usual, simply looked at the people around him. "Why are you all looking at me? What did I do? Especially, why are you looking at me like I'm some sort of idiot?"

"Because you are, dude," replied Neptune.

 ** _Yeah, pretty much._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	4. Chapter 3

**_Heya guys! Here is the new chapter of Viewing Jaune Arc: the Elemental Swordsman. If you haven't done so already, check out that fic. The author, LordHellPhoenix, is a very good writer and has some other stories you might be interested in, from fluff and romance to darker stuff._**

"As funny as all this is," said Yang. "When are we going to be able to go home?"

"Well, back home we've been hit by a giant fireball and liquefied, Yang," Jaune reminded her. "Do you really want to go back to that?"

"Thank you, but I prefer to go on living," noted Blake with her usual... let's call it lack of enthusiasm. "Here we might be trapped, but at least we're alive, and this world we are watching seems to be at least funny..."

"Well, Jauney here is the main character, so it's obviously gonna be funny," smirked Yang.

"Hey!" protested Jaune, but no one heeded his complaint.

"I wonder what's gonna happen next..." mumbled Pyrrha. "In the real world, Jaune and I met that morning. You think it's gonna happen in this world as well?"

"It's almost sure it will," Ren reassured her. "Also, he seemed to be... without any offence, Jaune... as ignorant of important people as our Jaune was. The same scene of our initiation will repeat itself, I'm sure of it."

"Y-You saw that?" stammered Jaune, embarrassed.

Blake gave him a deadpan stare. "Jaune, I think the whole applicant body saw that," she told him flatly. The knight could only sigh in shame while Pyrrha put a comforting hand on his shoulders.

"I'm not sure how should I take this," Ironwood confided to Ozpin. "Your students are strange..."

"All the better for our fight against Salem," replied the elder Headmaster. "They will be less predictable, don't you agree?"

The General sighed in defeat. "Whatever you say, Ozpin. Whatever you say... no matter how much I might disagree."

Ozpin placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, my friend," he reassured him. "I've been fighting this war far longer than anyone else in the world. I know how to handle Salem." The General nodded before a new conversation caught their eyes, or rather their ears.

"Arc... Jaune," began Weiss, turning to face the blond knight, who just looked at her with surprise. "Due to recent revelations, I think I misjudged you. I would like to erase all our past interactions and start anew, so that our past history won't prevent us from being... _friends_." It was clear she was forcing the word out of her mouth.

Jaune just nodded dumbly. Weiss's eyes flashed for a second. "But if you resume pestering me for dates, then I _will_ have to take action." Again, Jaune nodded, this time more quickly and purely out of fear.

Neptune shook his head. "Dude, now I get why you have absolutely zero girls interested in you," he said, his voice dripping with disapproval. "You have no backbone at all."

Jaune didn't reply, but Pyrrha stepped in. "Jaune is our leader, and any insult to him is an insult to our team," she stated, both Nora and Ren nodding in agreement.

Neptune smirked. "It wasn't an insult, it was merely a statement of fact," he said. "And you didn't deny it."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. Jaune lacked more confidence than backbone, and with his current training it wasn't hard to be intimidated in a school literally full of people who could break every bone in his body on a whim. Still, Neptune's statement wasn't exactly a _lie_ or an _insult_ , even if it was offending, so she just sat, glaring daggers at the blue-haired boy.

Said blue-haired inwardly smiled victoriously. He had just avoided what could've been a civil conversation between Jaune and Weiss. He was okay with Weiss dating someone else... but not as long as he was courting her. He didn't need a rival, no matter how goofy, clumsy and weak said rival was.

The screen lit up again, interrupting what could've degenerated into an argument. Maybe it was programmed to do so.

 **Jaune was woken up in the usual way of Nora belly flopping onto him while shouting, "Wake up, Fearless Leader!" When Nora got off of him, he just rolled over and groaned in pain. Having huge reserves of aura doesn't mean much when your unconscious. From his position he looked up at Ren, who was trying not to smirk. Jaune shot him a glare that said, 'You're enjoying this.' Ren merely raised an eyebrow meaning, 'Karma for yesterday.' Jaune just did a combination between a sigh and a groan before he stood up and stretched the stiffness of his muscles.**

Jaune shot Ren a look of betrayal. "You let Nora wake me up on purpose?!" he exclaimed, scandalized.

The green ninja simply shrugged. "Karma for yesterday is what he said," he said, and then smirked. "So, watch out, Jaune, because if you slight me, I will let Nora loose on you."

Jaune, more resigned than scared at this point, looked at Pyrrha and Ruby. "At least you two aren't gonna threaten me, right?" he asked.

The two redheads exchanged at glance. "If you keep your chocolate and strawberry cakes coming, we won't have to," Ruby replied sweetly.

The knight groaned in despair.

"Wait, when did Blake threaten you?" asked Yang, surprised that the usually calm Faunus could threaten someone as harmless and friendly as Jaune.

He shook his head. "I can only say it's something about her books and not telling anyone," he revealed, with Blake shooting him a quick glare. _'Fortunately I didn't tell her the author is a childhood friend of mine, or she would've forced me to get her the first drafts of the new series.'_

 **"Nora. When will you stop calling me that? You might get another leader after teams are formed and that new leader may not like you calling me that."**

 **"Nope."**

 **"Nope?"**

 **"Yup. You'll always be my Fearless Leader, even if we get another leader which we won't. We've got a plan!" She smiled widely up at Jaune and all he could do was sigh with his own smile.**

 **He patted her on the head, "Guess you got me there." She giggled and helped Ren up before all three went off to get ready for the day. The whole time Nora was going over her plan on how she'd be partners with Ren and all three would be on the same team afterwards. Ren listened stoically and Jaune just smiled at her usual antics. They were in the locker room waiting for Ren to get StormFlower out of his locker and Jaune decided to mess with Nora. He was leaning against the locker next to Ren's when he had a look of mock realization. "Nora, you'd rather be Ren's partner over mine?" He put his hand over his chest "Your words wound my already wounded heart, it may just break with that." He said very sadly.**

Nora's eyes widened, but Ren placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Nora, he was just teasing you."

The girl pouted and gave him a dirty glare. "You're gonna pay for this."

"Hey!" protested Jaune. "It's not even me! If anything, you should make _him_ pay!"

"Yes, but since he isn't here and you're an alternative version of him, I'm gonna take it out on you," replied the Hammer Maiden. Jaune just groaned as she announced his punishment. "You're gonna cook me pancakes for a week!"

 **Nora's eyes widened to comical proportions before she jumped forward and put Jaune into a bear hug. "I'm sorry, Jaune! I didn't mean it that way. I'd love it if you were my partner, it's just Ren is so…. Ren. Not that you aren't great!" Jaune decided to put an end to this before she had a mental breakdown.**

 **"Nora, I was teasing you. I'm not upset that you want Ren as a partner." He smiled genuinely at her.**

 **Nora took a deep breath before giving a glare, "That's not nice."**

"Two weeks."

Another groan.

 **Since his arms were stilled pinned down by the hug, he simple kissed Nora on the forehead. "I'm sorry, Little Sis. Didn't mean to hurt you."**

 **Nora looked at him for a second before she let go, "I'll forgive you but next time I'll break your legs."**

 **He chuckled at her usual threat before Ren and Nora started to walk away, "I'll catch up. I still need my gear." He started walking towards his locker when he walked past Ruby and Yang. "Morning, you two."**

"Morning," the sisters replied.

 **The two looked to Jaune and returned the greeting. Ruby appeared in front of Jaune before he could walk away. "So, Jaune, you gonna tell us how you did that thing with the candle?" she looked up at him waiting. Jaune just smirked at her before ruffling her hair.**

 **"Sorry, Ruby. Gotta keep some secrets." She started to swat his hand away with a faint blush. Until Yang pulled him into a headlock and he noticed his head was snug against her breasts. He flushed for a second until Yang spoke to him.**

"Sure you noticed..." smirked Yang.

"It's not _my_ fault if you flaunt your body every time you can," he defended himself. "And it's not _his_ fault if you literally pressed his head into your breasts."

His excuse, of course, didn't keep Pyrrha from scowling at the screen.

 **"Come on, Jauney, you can tell us. We can keep a secret."**

 **"Hmm. Nope. And would you let go of me?"**

 **"What don't like the way I'm holding you?" Yang asked teasingly.**

 **Jaune sighed and decided to roll with it to get out of this faster. "Actually, it's very nice. Your 'assets' are very soft and your heartbeat is calming. I just know my neck is starting to ache." Both sisters were shocked at that. Ruby because someone was actually turning Yang's teasing back at her and Yang because Jaune was speaking with blunt honesty again. It made her feel weird, not bad weird just different. "You okay, Yang? Your heartbeat got a lot faster." Yang quickly let go of Jaune before saying with a slight blush.**

Yang blushed as well, protectively crossing her arms over her chest. "T-There's no need to s-state it t-that bluntly..." she chuckled weakly.

Pyrrha, meanwhile, took note to remember that. If simply pressing her breasts to his face was the easiest way to make him notice them, then maybe it was worth a shot... or a few. She surely wouldn't mind.

 **"Yeah, I'm fine. Just nervous about initiation is all, I guess."**

 **"Same here. Well, I'll see you two later." He waved at them before going over to his locker. Which now he noticed had Weiss and another girl with red hair and dressed like a Spartan standing in front of it. He cleared his throat to get their attention.**

 **They turned and Weiss sent him a slight glare. "Jaune, we're kinda in the middle of a conversation." She said mildly annoyed.**

"Oh well, apparently it's really gonna happen," noted Ruby.

"Is it gonna be fun?" asked Sun. After a second of thought, Yang nodded, much to Jaune's chagrin. "Oh man, I wish I could have some popcorns right now. It's like at the cinema!"

There was a flash of light before a small plate with a glass of banana juice and a few slices of toasted and buttered bread appeared in front of him with a note.

 _Junk food isn't available until the fourth viewing session. Lunch can be ordered at any time during or after the seventh. Until then, only breakfast is served. Signed, Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh, the houseowner, and Phoenix, the host._

"What?!" exclaimed Sun, looking at his plate. The banana juice was very appealing, but it was a bit freaky that the food had appeared out of thin air.

Soon everyone had ordered their own breakfasts. Ruby wanted to go with cookies, but since Pyrrha had managed to get `Jaune's home-made chocolate strawberry three-layered cake`, she opted to follow her example and get that, plus of course a glass of milk. Blake and Weiss alike asked for some light cereal, one paired with an organic catnip tea and one paired with an original Italian Cappuccino, whatever Italian meant. Yang asked for some biscuits to dip into her tea, aka her usual breakfast. Ren and Nora had both taken a large stack of pancakes and a glass of apple juice and an infusion of herbs. Guess who got what. Jaune asked for scrambled eggs and bacon with a glass of orange juice. Sun asked for a banana while Neptune kept his cool attitude said he wasn't hungry. The adults didn't take anything, except for Ozpin, who took another cup of coffee.

 **"I know but you two happen to be in front of my locker." Indicating it. "Kinda need my gear, if you don't mind." Weiss calmed down and the two stepped away from each other so Jaune could get to it. He smiled "Thank you." Before he went to the locker he turned to the other girl. "I'm sorry for being rude. I'm Jaune Arc. Who are you, may I ask?"**

 **Both girls looked at him in disbelief, "You seriously don't know who she is?" Weiss asked.**

 **Jaune shrugged before opening his locker and putting on his chest plate. "No, Snow Angel. I told you before, I trained outside the kingdoms. Didn't have time to keep up with current events."**

"Again, you didn't have that excuse," stated Weiss before scrunching her face up. "I'm trying... s-sorry."

"Jeez, there's no need to make it sound like it's killing you," grinned Yang, earning a glare from Weiss.

"Well, at least I'm trying!" she shot back. "You had to have a godlike entity tell you to stop before you dropped that stupid nickname and ended your grudge. _And_ you got new boots!"

Yang shrugged. "What can I say? I'm awesome. Even the gods take action when I'm involved."

 **She huffed, "Right. This is Pyrrha Nikos."**

 **Jaune just got done strapping his greaves on and rose with a smile. "Nice name and a pleasure to meet you."**

 **Pyrrha slightly blushed before Weiss continued slightly more annoyed, "Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum."**

 **Jaune was putting on his right vambracer on and looked back up at Pyrrha, "Wow, you must be smart. I was never one for book learning, I prefer to learn from experience."**

 **"She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row. A new record in fact." Weiss was getting more annoyed.**

 **Jaune was tightening his left vambracer now. "Impressive. You must be extremely skilled."**

 **Weiss finally lost it, "She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"**

"Well, that went more or less exactly like it went in our world," commented Blake.

 **Jaune was finishing up putting his rerebrace on his left arm when he heard that. He stopped and snapped his fingers. "So that's where I've seen you before, it was driving me nuts. That's pretty cool but the cereal kinda sucks. No offense." Jaune added sheepishly.**

"But at least _that_ Jaune knows when a cereal is unhealthy," commented Sun, blinking when Jaune and Pyrrha stared at him. "What? Ice Queen told my buddy Neptune, and he told me. I know about the whole thing, you know?"

"And why is everyone so hellbent on telling _me_ that the cereal is unhealthy when no one is telling Nora or Ren not to eat ten pancakes for breakfast, or Ruby not to eat Beacon's kitchen out of cookies?" asked Jaune, slightly annoyed.

"Well, for once they can actually hurt any of us while you can't," noted Neptune. "Plus those two have not a hint of fat in their bodies. As long as they can handle it, it's not our problem."

He had just made a mistake. "Are you calling me _fat?_ " asked Jaune, his voice incredibly dangerous. His friends leaned away from him. Having grown up surrounded by girls, Jaune had picked up _lots_ of more... feminine characteristics. Another example was his care for his hair. Cardin had learned it the time when he had exchanged Jaune's shampoo with multicolour dyer. Jaune's fury had been borderline Yang, and from that day everyone at Beacon knew not to mess with the hair of the Golden Dragoness, nor of the Golden Knight.

"Oh boy..." sighed Yang, shaking his head as Neptune learned the hard way never to call a girl, or someone grown up with lots of girls, fat. Or suggest they might be fat. Or even _think_ about it. Neptune's background screams continued as they turned back to the screen.

 **Pyrrha just shook her head with a polite grin, "It's quite alright. I agree with you wholeheartedly."**

 **Jaune just chuckled, "Well, I'd wish you luck but I doubt you need it. Maybe we'll get lucky and be on the same team." Jaune said with a smile.**

 **"You really think you're in the same league as Pyrrha? Are you serious?" Weiss couldn't believe what he was saying.**

"I agree wholeheartedly," said Weiss. "As... apt for leadership... as Arc... _Jaune_ is, he is nowhere near _our_ level of skill, much less Pyrrha's."

 **Jaune was reaching in for his swords and didn't turn around to answer. "Maybe." The two looked at him in greater shock as he was putting his swords still in standby mode on his back and tightening his harnesses to hold them in place. "I can't say for sure. I have no idea of her capabilities and barely anyone here has any idea on my own." He finished checking his gear and closed his locker before he turned around to face them. "So, we'll just have to wait and see, Snow Angel."**

 **"Are you going to keep calling me that?" Weiss said slightly annoyed.**

"Please, just say no," prayed the girl in white while her friends snickered. In the background, Neptune was heard screaming again, something along the lines of `I will never call you fat.`

 **Jaune thought for a second, "If you don't want me to I can stop and call you Weiss. I just called you that because I didn't know who you were and that was the first thing that came to mind."**

 **Weiss saw the sincerity in his eyes and turned away with a slight blush, "Just don't call me it all the time and it'll be fine."**

"I can't believe it!" exclaimed Yang. "The Ice Queen's thawing! The Ice Queen's thawing! And it's all thanks to Jaune!"

"Shut up, Yang," growled Weiss, embarrassed.

"What is thanks to me?" asked Jaune, dropping a very worse for wear Neptune. The blue-haired boy's eyes were wide with abject terror.

"Nothing!" exclaimed Weiss, shooting a glare to Yang.

 **Jaune nodded, "You got it, Weiss." He turned to Pyrrha "I wish you both luck in the initiation." He smiled at both and left the locker room. He met up with Nora and Ren and the three of them made their way to the cliffs to start initiation. They each stood on a metal pad: Jaune took one in the middle, Ren took the one to the left of him and Nora stood to the left of Ren. They then waited for the rest of the first years to show up. Jaune had his eyes closed and was mentally preparing himself and focusing his aura to calm his body down slightly.**

 **When he came back to reality, everyone was there and Ozpin was already talking to them all. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard of rumors about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates today."**

 **Jaune heard a 'What?' coming from his right and looked to see Ruby beside him looking a bit nervous.**

 **"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well with."**

 **Having not looked away, Jaune saw Ruby get more nervous and start groaning.**

 **"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after you land will be your partner for the next four years."**

"What the Hell?!" shouted everyone who hadn't witnesses or took part in the Beacon initiation. Even Qrow seemed shocked. "That's your method?"

Ozpin chuckled. "No. The plates they're standing on are programmed to launch them in particular areas of the forest. We launched students with good chances of getting along fine in the same areas."

While many sighed in relief, Weiss bristled. "And who thought that Ruby and I would get along fine?!"

"Well, Ms Schnee, it appears I was correct," commented the man, taking a sip of coffee and relishing in the taste. "Your team is the best team among the first year students."

 **It looked like Ruby's world fell apart and shouted "What?!" Jaune reached over and patted her on the head. She looked at him and he smiled reassuringly at her. Her scared look morphed to one of confidence before she nodded to him and he took his hand away.**

 **"After you partner up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die. You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Any questions?" no one said anything "Good! Now, take your positions."**

"I still haven't forgiven you for that, Ozpin," grumbled Jaune, remembering how the launch had gone in their world. Ozpin chuckled.

 **Jaune bent his knees slightly and prepared himself. He noticed that one by one the students were being launched into the forest. Jaune and Ren watched as Nora got launched. They shared a look and a nod before Ren was then launched. Jaune turned to Ruby and smiled before he was launched as well. As he was flying through the air he waited to get to the height of his ascension before he corrected himself into a vertical stance. He applied pressure with his right ring finger, the sheathes rotated to his right shoulder and the sword in the middle right deployed its handle. Jaune reached for it as he heard a gunshot to his right and turned to see a red and bronze blur coming towards him. He quickly drew his sword to deflect whatever it was. His sword was identical to Raikiri except that it had a light green glow going through the circuits and edge. His eyes shifted to the same light green color and he felt his body become lighter. He aimed for the nearest tree and plunged the blade into the trunk. When his momentum slowed he kicked off the tree and back flipped to the ground.**

"That's so cool!" shouted Ruby, stars in her eyes. "He's able to use the Dust in the sword to lighten himself and thus lessen his fall! Jaune, can I forge you those swords?!"

Jaune sighed. "Look, if you can get Phoenix to give you the blueprints, do as you wish. I can't keep telling you no."

"Thanks!" shouted Ruby, giving him a brief hug before starting to think of a strategy to get Phoenix to give her the blueprints. Maybe her ultimate Puppy Eyes? Pouty and Trembling Lip? On the Verge of Tears? Most of them would've caused a mere mortal to fold into themselves. She was ready to try and use them on who could basically count as a god.

 **He popped his shoulder and looked around to see the blur land a few feet away from him. He sheathed his sword and his eyes returned to normal as he walked over to the object. He got closer and saw that it was a javelin, he picked it up and examined it. "Doesn't this belong to Pyrrha? Why did she throw a spear at me?" Before he could think about it he heard the sounds of fighting and took off towards the sound of it.**

"Normally, I'd say that throwing away your only weapon is a very stupid action to execute, Ms Nikos," said Ironwood. "But given your fame, skill and training, I am sure that you would've been able to handle the situation yourself even without his help."

Pyrrha looked down, not liking the praise. Praise like that was what made her feel more like a weapon than a person.

 **When he got to a clearing he saw Pyrrha with only a shield to defend herself surrounded by a dozen Beowolves. Without hesitating he applied pressure with his right pinky and drew Raikiri. The blade surrounded itself with lightning and his eyes shifted to yellow. He got into a stance and shouted. "Surge, Raikiri!" he shot off in a blur of lightning towards the Beowolves and stood beside Pyrrha facing the opposite way of her, as the three Beowolves behind him were bisected. Pyrrha was shocked as Jaune just randomly showed up next to her in a blur of lightning.**

"That's so cool!" exclaimed Ruby. "How did he do that?"

"Well, obviously Raikiri is filled with Lightning Dust, and his Semblance apparently allows him to use the Dust to his advantage in ways normal Dust-users can't execute," replied Jaune, his eyes never leaving the screen. "His fighting style is obviously based not just on the Dust, but it surely plays an important role in it."

 **"Jaune?! How did you-?"**

 **"I'll explain later. Let's finish these things." He hands her javelin to her. "Might wanna hold onto this." He gave her a sideways glance with a smirk. She took it and smiled as two Beowolves flanked them on both sides. Pyrrha shifted her javelin into a rifle form and opened fired while Jaune discharged an arc of lightning at the other two. Down to five Beowolves the both took off in opposite directions. Jaune reached his two and slashed the first across its chest. The second tried to avenge its pack mate and tried to sink its claws into Jaune before he maneuvered himself behind it in a burst of lightning and decapitated the Grimm. He turned to see Pyrrha done with her three. The two were walking over to each other as an Alpha Beowolf emerged behind her ready to sink its teeth into her neck. Jaune charged again in another burst of lightning and got himself between the two, holding it back with his blade.**

"Hah! He saved you like a true hero!" laughed Nora. Pyrrha blushed as she looked at the screen. Jaune sighed and shook his head.

"Well, at least in one universe I'm able to do something good from time to time..." he mumbled so low only Blake heard him. She shot him a curious glance.

 **"Pyrrha, a hand!" Jaune shouted and sidestepped as Pyrrha bashed it with her shield then followed it up by stabbing it with her javelin to push it back. As Jaune jumped back and sheathed Raikiri and his eyes shifted back to blue as he sent aura to his legs to jump above the two. Keeping his hand over his right shoulder, he applied pressure with his right middle finger and the middle sword deployed its handle. He drew the sword as its circuits and edge started to glow red, his eyes shifted to crimson and the blade became engulfed in flames. "Pyrrha, move!" She looked up and quickly jumped back. The Alpha stumbled forward as Jaune swung down and fire started to stream towards it. "Burn, Kakiri!" The Alpha was engulfed in the inferno and was howling in agony as Jaune landed not far from Pyrrha as she watched in awe.**

"So far we've seen Electricity or Lightning Dust, Burn or Fire Dust, and Air or Wind Dust," said Winter. "I wonder what the other two swords will contain."

"What's the difference between those Dusts?" asked Yang, confused.

"More or less the difference between their names. Wind is a particular type of Air Dust, modifying to work better with certain mechanisms but worse with others. As well, Burn Dust is excellent in lighting things up, but Fire Dust allows the user to _control_ the flames, something Burn Dust can't do. Same for Electricity and Lightning."

"Cool..." said Jaune, thinking on how to implement this new information in his team's fighting style. He was the only one not to use Dust... probably in the entire school... so his teammates would probably have much to gain from a more detailed reasearch.

 **"Jaune." She turned to him. "How did you do that?"**

 **Jaune thought for a second, "Well since we are partners, I'll tell you." He showed her his sword. "Each of my blades contains a different dust. This one contains fire dust so I named her Kakiri or Fire Cutter. Anyways my semblance allows me to have limited control of the element. Also, my eyes shift colors." He pointed to his now crimson eyes. Before Pyrrha could respond the Alpha burst from the flames still burning and charged them claws first. Jaune stepped in front of Pyrrha and caught its arm with his left hand to stop it in its tracks. He lifted it over his head before slamming it into the ground, forming a small crater before impaling it through the head. Jaune pulled out Kakiri and sheathed it before turning to Pyrrha with a smirk. "So, am I in the same league as you, partner?" As his eyes went back to blue. Pyrrha just giggled and lightly punched him in the shoulder.**

"Definitely near my league, if not the same," nodded Pyrrha. Jaune let out a chuckle.

"Ironic, isn't it?" he said bitterly, again low enough only for Blake to hear, and even her with some difficulty. "It sounds almost like Phoenix brought us here just to remind me of just how lousy and weak I am. In everything, _he_ is better than me. Makes you wonder what I am I still doing here, doesn't it?".

Blake shot him a more curious, now also worried look. She had never been really close to Jaune but he was her friend, even if just because he was a friend of a her friends. Hearing him put himself down like that... kinda hurt, and not physically. She didn't really know what to do of it so she just tried to ignore it, but something told her that pain wasn't gonna fade soon if she just continued to ignore it.

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	5. Chapter 4

**_Heya guys! Time to update Viewing Jaune Arc: the Elemental Swordsman! If you haven't read the fic yet, go read it. It's blasphemy not to._**

 ** _Anyway, enjoy the chapter._**

"I want popcorns!"

Everyone turned to stare flatly at Sun as the monkey Faunus leapt on his feet, throwing her arms in the air as if to catch something. He grinned at them. "The note said no junk food until the fourth viewing. We passed the third, so this is the fourth, and I really want popcorn to go with this. Watching Super-Cool Jaune is great, but without popcorns it loses much of its greatness."

Blake sighed as a can of popcorn fell from the ceiling, square on Sun's head. The boy laughed triumphantly as he snatched it from mid-air and fell back down on his couch before remembering and ordering a coke. "You know, Sun, we're meant to learn from this world, not abuse of the food provided."

"But why not abuse of it while at the same time learning?" smirked the Faunus, his logic pretty undefeatable. "Besides, it's not like we're gonna have to pay for the food."

"Then why is your wallet floating away?" asked Yang, pointing somewhere behind him.

Sun dropped the popcorns and turned in shock. "Where?!" he asked, trying to spot the fleeing wallet. Only when he heard the chuckles behind him he realized he had just been fooled. "Ha, ha, very funny," he grumbled as he sat back down.

"Well, if Sun can order popcorns, I guess we can all order some as well!" exclaimed Yang, and immediately another can of popcorn appeared on a small table in front of her. The table had appeared as well. Beside it there was a Pepschnee.

Most of the students ordered a snack to chew on while they watched the reality. No one really had anything to say so they just waited for the screen to light up. A few minutes later, it did.

 **Jaune and Pyrrha were walking towards the direction of the ruins. After the incident with the Beowolves, they ran into no resistance. They were still ready in case any other Grimm should show up but were glad that none had. Especially Jaune, switching between too many elements too quickly could exhaust him. The two new partners were walking together in a comfortable silence but Jaune kept noticing Pyrrha glancing at him from time to time. She looked like she wanted to ask something but didn't know if she should. Jaune turned to her and she quickly looked away. Jaune smiled, "Pyrrha?"**

 **Pyrrha flinched slightly and slowly turned back to him, "Yes, Jaune?"**

 **"You keep glancing over at me, do you wanna ask me something?"**

 **Her eyes widened for a second before she looked down, "No, it's okay."**

"You really shouldn't try to force down your questions, Pyrrha," said Weiss. "He's your partner: if you want to ask him something, just ask."

"Unless you want to ask him what size is he," winked Yang, earning blushes and outraged cries all around. "In that case, it might be better to see for yourself."

"YANG!"

 **"You sure? We're partners now, so I'd like us to get along. So, feel free to ask me anything. I'm pretty open to most things."**

 **She looked back up at him, "You sure?"**

 **"Absolutely!" He smiled reassuringly at her.**

 **She smiled back, "It's about how you fight. How did you move so quickly and toss the Alpha like it was nothing?"**

"Well, some Huntsman can do that," commented Qrow. "Kid's obviously trained and quite skilled, so I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be simply strong and quick enough to do that."

 **He chuckled, "It's a part of my Semblance. When I control an element, my body absorbs some energy from the element and that mixes with my aura temporarily. The result is my body gains a boost to one of my physical attributes. Lightning allows me to move at high speeds and fire increases my strength many times over. That make sense?" he looked back over at her.**

 **She nodded, "Impressive. So why don't you stay fused with the energy now? Just in case?"**

"Probably because even if he gains many benefits from that ability, his Semblance still runs on Aura," noted Jaune. "He would probably run out of Aura and not have enough in case an important fight came up."

Neptune harrumphed. "Well, at least when he uses it, it's awesome," he said, shrugging a shoulder.

 **"My aura gets used a lot more when I absorb an element, so in the long run it's better for me to only use it when I need to. Even though my aura reserves are pretty large, it can still burn out quickly if I'm not careful. And then I'd be screwed."**

"Perfect evaluation, Mr Arc," nodded Ozpin. "I was right when I made you the team leader."

Jaune blushed at the praise and looked down, thus missing Weiss opening her mouth to protest and immediately being shut up by the glares of both his team and hers.

 **Pyrrha nods again, "I understand. Can I ask one more thing, Jaune?"**

 **"Feel free."**

 **"Why did you shout out those catchphrases?" she tilted her head slightly.**

Jaune huffed. "What?!" he half-shouted, turning to Pyrrha. "You mean that if you had a Semblance like _that_ , you wouldn't shout out catchphrases?! Why?!"

Neptune nodded. "For once I agree with Jaune," he said. "Catchphrases are cool. As long as you shout them to mindless Grimm and not to opponents who could understand what you're going to do, there's no harm to them."

 **Jaune got a little embarrassed and started to scratch his head sheepishly, "Actually, that's because of my friend Nora. She thought that her 'Fearless Leader' should have some cool catchphrases. I did it at first to humor her but eventually I got used to it. I don't usually use them much unless she is around but in the heat of the moment they slip out. Kinda embarrassing, huh?"**

 **Pyrrha stared at him for a second before she giggled, "No. It's nice you did that for your friend." She looked away before saying in a slightly sadder voice, "She must mean a lot to you."**

 **"Well yeah, she's one of my best friends. We've known each other for years, we've trained together and have always been together." He chuckles. "Nowadays though I see her more like my sister than my friend and she sees me as a brother. A lot of people misinterpret our relationship as something more than that." He gave her a sideways glance and a smirk.**

"Nothing against you, Fearless Leader, but you're not my type!" cheerfully shouted Nora. Jaune chuckled.

"Yes, I know," he said. "Your type is with darker hair, possibly black, and unique eyes... pink, maybe, since that's your favourite colour?"

Nora nodded energetically while everyone but Ren sighed and shook their heads. Even Ironwood had already noticed the _obvious_ ongoing attraction between the two. They were as dense as Jaune, sometimes. Or maybe they were just in denial.

 **Pyrrha blushed for a second, "I'm sorry."**

 **Jaune waved the apology off and smiled, "No harm done."**

 **She smiled back and they went back to the comfortable silence. They walked for a few more minutes before they came to the entrance of a cave. "Think this is it?" Jaune asked her.**

 **"I'm not sure. Should we check it out?"**

"No, please, not this again," groaned Jaune.

"Don't worry, I'm sure the other you will be able to handle this," replied Yang, trying to be reassuring but only succeeding in making him sigh. "Hey, Jaune, what's wrong?"

Jaune looked up, surprised, and shook his head. "Nothing," he quickly lied. "I'm just hoping at least him won't have to go through what happened on our initiation."

"Don't worry about it, dude," shrugged Neptune. "That guy knows how to fight."

Pyrrha scowled at him for insinuating that Jaune couldn't fight, but Jaune just returned the shrug. "He's right," he said.

 **"Better safe than sorry." Jaune drew Kakiri and walked into the cave with the sword on fire. They walked for a few minutes and found nothing. They were about to turn around to leave, when they saw something glowing in the distance. "What is that?" Jaune asked getting closer.**

 **"Jaune, that may not be the best idea." She said reaching for her weapons. Jaune turned back to say something to her before he had to jump back when the glowing object smashed into the ground next to him. In the light of the flames, the two saw that it was a huge Death Stalker. Pyrrha started to fire shots into its head as Jaune turned to run to her.**

 **"Pyrrha, let's move!" Pyrrha started to turn towards the exit and run while Jaune turned and shot a stream of fire at it. He turned back to see Pyrhha exiting the cave and he quickly sheathed Kakiri and ran after her. When he got outside, he turned around to see the Death Stalker right behind him. He applied pressure with his right thumb and the sheathes rotated to his right shoulder. The left most sword's handle deployed and he drew it. The edges and circuits of the sword had a brown glow to it and his eyes shifted to the same brown. When the Grimm was at the entrance of the cave he impaled the sword into the ground and caused a small tremor which caused it the cave to collapse on top of it. When the dust settled, it was half buried and struggling to free itself. Jaune sheathed his sword, grabbed Pyrrha's hand and ran. "That won't hold it for long." They ran until they exited the forest into the clearing, where they found the ruins. They both sighed in relief before they made their way to the ruins. When they got there they saw Yang and Blake standing there.**

"Wow, he can make earthquakes..." cheered Sun. "He's so awesome!"

"He wasn't even winded after collapsing the cave," noted Ironwood. "He would truly make for an incredible student for Atlas."

"Fortunately he's going to attend Beacon, Jimmy," belched Qrow. "Far from greedy generals..."

"How dare you speak of him like that?!" exclaimed Winter.

Qrow stared flatly at her. "Someone has a minor idol here, don't you?"

Winter sputtered and turned away. Ironwood sighed, knowing of Winter's admiration and loyalty to him. "Winter, at ease," he said. "We're not on duty any more."

"Yes, sir."

Ironwood sighed again.

 **Jaune waved at them, "Hey, you two. You ended up as partners?"**

 **Yang nodded, "Yup. Blake gave me a hand with some Ursas. How'd you get paired with Pyrrha?" She asked looking past him to look at her.**

 **"She got surrounded by a few Beowolves and I stepped in to help her." He shrugged.**

 **Yang got a teasing grin, "Oh, we got a hero here, huh?"**

 **He simply walked by her with his own smirk, "You're just jealous because you weren't the princess I saved." Yang blushed slightly at the comeback and Pyrrha blushed at the compliment, while Blake was smirking at the two. Jaune made his way over to the relics and picked up a golden castle. "Hey, Pyr, you okay with this?" He held the relic up for her to see.**

 **Pyrrha reclaimed her senses before she nodded. Jaune attached it to his belt before they heard a series of explosions and saw an Ursa break through the trees. Before it crashed to the ground with Nora riding it's back. They all heard her say, "Aww, it's broken." Before Ren followed her out trying to catch his breathe.**

 **"Nora. Please never do that again." Ren said to her before they both heard a familiar voice.**

"WHAT?!" shouted Sun, shocked. "NO! DO THAT AGAIN! IT WAS AWESOME!"

Nora giggled.

"Seriously, Badass Jaune is cool and all, but _riding in on a dying Ursa?!_ " continued the monkey Faunus. "That just screams I'm Awesome!"

Ren's eye twitched.

 **"Ren, Nora! You guys made it!" They turned to see Jaune making his way over to them and waving. He didn't make it far before he was tackled to the ground by Nora.**

 **"Jaune! We were worried about you! We didn't know if you found a partner or got in over your head! But you're fine! Who's your partner? Tell me, tell me!"**

 **Ren made it over to his two best friends before looking down at them, "Nora. You may want to let go. Jaune can't breathe." Nora quickly looked down and saw Jaune turning blue. Nora quickly jumped off of him and Ren helped him up. Then all three of them started laughing together. The three others just looked on as the three had their little reunion before Nora ran past them and picked up a golden castle and started saying, "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!" as the other two made their way back to the group. Before anyone could say anything, they heard someone screaming before they looked up to see Ruby falling.**

"I guess in this universe Jaune doesn't save me," commented Ruby.

"Save you by crashing into you because he had been flung by the Deathstalker?" asked Neptune, raising an eyebrow.

"He still saved me!" countered Ruby.

Neptune huffed. "Sounds more like the Deathstalker saved you."

 **Yang started running to get underneath her while Jaune applied pressure with his right ring finger and drew his light green blade with his eyes shifting to the same color. "Storm, Fukiri!" Jaune's legs were surrounded by a small cyclone before he jumped and was propelled into the air. He reached Ruby and pulled her into his chest before he spun around to point his blade at the ground and released a large gust of wind to slow down their descent. As they touched down, Jaune let out a sigh of relief before he looked down at Ruby, "You okay, Ruby?" She looked up at him with a blush and nodded. Jaune smiled and was about to sheathe Fukiri before he heard a second scream and saw Weiss falling from the sky. "Oum damn it!" The cyclone formed again before he flew off towards Weiss at an angle. He caught her and pointed his blade to the ground to slow his descent but they were too close to slow themselves down. Jaune quickly spun around and held Weiss close as he hit the ground and started sliding across on his back. When he stopped, he let out a small groan before looking at Weiss to see if she was okay. "You alright, Weiss?" She was just staring at him with her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide. "Weiss? Weiss? Snow Angel?"**

"Oh well, he more or less saved Weiss the same way," smirked Yang. "Both ending with his back hurting."

"I have to disagree," replied Neptune. "From what I've been told, Jaune only managed to soften the fall a little, not stopping it entirely like the other Jaune did."

"Oh, shut it!" Jaune finally snapped. "Both of us stopped her fall. Stop. That's what is important. I can live with a little soreback for ten minutes."

 **Weiss finally came back to reality at that and quickly got off of him, "I'm fine. Thank you for saving me, Jaune." She said with a small amount of genuine gratitude slipping in.**

"You could've been as grateful in our universe as well, you know?" said Blake, turning to Weiss, who huffed and looked away with just a light shade of pink on her cheeks.

 **"Anytime." Jaune replied while getting up with a groan of pain. "Gonna be sore for a while." Weiss was about say something as everyone else ran up to him to check on him. They were all talking at the same time, except Ren and couldn't understand what they were saying. He finally whistled loudly to get everyone's attention. "I can't have six conversations at the same time guys." They heard a screeching and turned to see a massive Nevermore flying towards them before it released a barrage of feathers at them. Jaune reacted first. "Nora, explosives!" Nora pulled out Magnhild in its grenade launcher mode and fired several of her explosives into the air while Jaune swung Fukiri to release a wave of wind to send them into the feather. The giant pink explosion was all that was left of the feathers. Before anyone could breathe easy, they heard a giant crashing sound and saw the Death Stalker emerging from the forest where Jaune and Pyrrha came from. They all looked at Jaune and Pyrrha, "May have forgot about that one." Jaune said sheepishly.**

"That's just so Jaune-like," commented Weiss.

"Yeah, but did you see how he destroyed those feathers?" asked Nora, jumping up and down. "I wanna do that too!"

"You can't Nora," replied Ren. "No one here is able to make them explode like that."

Jaune sighed and leaned back against the couch.

 **Ruby quickly pulled out Crescent Rose, "I got this!" She charged it before anyone could stop her. She was knocked away by the Death Stalker before she got herself pinned by her cloak by another barrage of feathers. The Death Stalker went in for the kill as Weiss shot forward to stop its stinger with a wall of ice. They were okay, until the Death Stalker broke free and was about to finish both of them. Jaune switched Fukiri to his left hand and drew Raikiri. His eyes shifted yellow and shot forward in a blur of lightning. He got in between the girls and the Death Stalker before firing a massive arc of lightning at the Grimm, stunning it. His eyes shifted back to light green and sent a blast of wind to send it flying back. Jaune fell to his knee and was breathing raggedly as his eyes reverted back to blue. Ruby and Weiss were quickly by his side helping him to stand.**

"That was so cool!" exclaimed Yang. "I want to do that too!"

"You're not the only one," mumbled Jaune. Blake's cat ear twitched.

"Yeah, but why is he so tired?" asked Pyrrha, worrying for the other Jaune.

Their own was the one to answer. "He said that his Aura can burn out quickly if he's not careful to use it. Right now he's probably experiencing minor Aura exhaustion."

 **"Jaune, are you okay?" Ruby asked worried.**

 **Jaune gave a tired chuckle. "Just overused my Semblance. Need a breather." He looked down at Raikiri. "That last arc used up the last of Raikiri's dust. Damn." He sheathed both his swords just as everyone gathered around them.**

 **"Are you hurt, Jaune?!" Pyrrha asked also worried.**

 **"Just need a second to breath, Pyrrha. I'll be fine." Jaune looked at the two Grimm getting ready to comeback for another attack. "We may wanna get outta here."**

"Well, at least he's not an idiot," commented Neptune. "He knows when he's outmatched. And when to take a breather."

 **"He's right. We just need to get the relics and go. We have no reason to fight them." Ruby agreed with Jaune and Weiss nodded as well. Everyone else agreed, Ruby quickly picked up a relic and they all started to run towards the cliffs.**

 **They got out of the forest and started running across another set of ruins. As they were running across, the Nevermore flew through the supports and the bridge started to collapse. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Nora and Jaune made it to the other side of the ruins while Ren, Blake and Pyrrha were trapped on the other side with the Death Stalker. The other three started to open fire on the Nevermore and Nora and Jaune shared at look. Nora smashed the bridge and sending both of them into the air. At the height of their jump, Jaune applied pressure with his right thumb and drew his brown glowing sword and his eyes shifted brown. His body got heavier and he started falling faster. "Crush, Dokiri!" He slammed his sword onto the Death Stalker at the same time as Nora made contact which made a crater the size of the Death Stalker.**

"Well, your initiation would've acted out much better had your leader been able to do that," commented Neptune. "Unfortunately..."

"Oh, could you shut up?!" exclaimed Sun. "You're ruining the movie! Or... universe... whatever."

 **They both jumped back with the others and looked to see that Ruby and the others weren't faring well. The Death Stalker started to stir again, "Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, hold it off for a second." He plunged Dokiri into the ground and drew Kakiri and his eyes shifted to brown to red. He looked over at Blake and held out his hand to her. "Do you trust me?" She looked at his hand than back up at his eyes. She saw nothing but resolve and determination. She nodded and took his hand. He spun around once before throwing her to the other side with her partner. He quickly grabbed Dokiri and twisted the blade to send three huge rocks at the Nevermore from his side of the chasm. Blake used these to reposition herself and run on before one slammed into the Nevermore, only for the other two to slam into the cliff. Jaune sheathed Kakiri and pulled Dokiri from the ground and charged back to the Death Stalker.**

"Well, that was effective," noted Winter. "He's capable of understanding a situation very quickly and adapt to it."

Neptune chuckled. "And he also have enough power to win every situation!" he commented cheerfully.

Blake's ear twitched again.

 **The Death Stalker aimed its claw at Pyrrha, who deflected it with her shield. It than tried to go at her again with its other claw but Jaune was able to stop it with his forearm before both slashed at its face. Ren focused fire on its stinger and Nora fired more grenades at it. Pyrrha threw her javelin into its eyes as Jaune used Dokiri to bring up two rock pillars into its side. His caused it to knock Ren away and hit a tree.**

 **"Ren!" Nora and Jaune shouted at the same time. Jaune noticed that the stinger is barely hanging on thanks to Ren. Jaune looked to Pyrrha and pointed to the stinger, "Pyrrha!"**

"Yep, that was awesome," nodded Yang. "But only if you don't know Pyrrha's Semblance."

"Yeah, that's cheating!" exclaimed Nora. Pyrrha blinked.

"How can using my Semblance be cheating?" she asked.

"You're the only one on this team who uses it in combat," explained Ren. "Nora's Semblance requires particular criteria to be met, while mine is pretty much useless against humans."

"Wait, you two have Semblances?" asked Yang as she had never seen their Semblances. Team RWBY always used their Semblances to fight, after all.

"Yes, we do," replied Ren.

 **She nodded, "Done!" she threw her shield and knocked the stinger off for it to impale the Grimm. He looked at Nora and she just smiled evilly. He crouched with his forearm over his head supporting his sword as Nora jumps onto it. Jaune jumped to send Nora into the air and as she was coming down to hammer the stinger through, Jaune sent a large rock under the Grimm. The result was the head of the Death Stalker being no more. Jaune was breathing raggedly as Nora landed beside him, not as winded, and Pyrrha reclaimed her weapon before Ren walked over in mild pain. They then all grinned and looked over to see Ruby decapitating the Nevermore. They were all in shock and awe. "Whoa." Is all Jaune could say. He turned to the others, only to be hit in the side by a giant Grimm fist. He started skidding across the ground before stopping right before the edge of the cliff. He looked up to see probably the worst thing that could happen right now.**

 **A Beringel was standing between him and the others and was staring him down angrily.**

"Oh, well, that's not too much of a deal," said Neptune as the other gasped at the screen. They turned to him. "Come on, that's not the Jaune of our universe. I'm sure he can handle that Beringel."

"THAT'S! IT!" Everyone turned to look at Blake, shocked by her outburst. The cat Faunus stomped over to the blue haired teen and grabbed him by the collar, lifting him in the air Yang-like. "I'M TIRED OF HEARING YOU TRY TO INSULT JAUNE! I'M DONE!"

As everyone stared in shock at her, she unceremoniously dropped the boy to the floor and marched over to where Jaune was sitting, his mouth half-open in a daze. "And you!" she said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him off the couch. "You're coming with me! I'm gonna train you, and fuck what the others think!" She stated as she dragged the knight away under the stunned eyes of everyone.

After a few seconds of silence, six more students rose and followed her. "I'm going with her," said Pyrrha. "Jaune is my team leader, my partner but most of all my friend. His fighting style is similar to mine, so I should be the one training him the most."

"Jaune's our friend, and Blake is right," stated Ruby. "We were too distracted by the universe, but Jaune is our friend and he will always come before any alternative versions of himself from other universes."

"And if anyone has anything to say, we'll break their legs!" shouted Nora.

Ren sighed at her statement. "I cannot say I agree, but I won't stop her, either," he added. "Jaune's our friend, no matter what."

"And what if he's not the strongest here?" asked Yang, honestly sounding like she didn't understand something. "He's got the heart of a Huntsman. Muscles, you can work out for them. But the heart? It's not a muscle you can improve in the gym."

Weiss was the last. She looked at the door where everyone had disappeared before she turned to Neptune. He smiled at her as she walked up to him. Said smile was erased from his face when the snow-themed girl slapped him across the face, twice. He gaped at her, shocked, as she turned and moved to the door. Before she disappeared, though, she looked back at him. "I may not like Jaune, but he's one of the most good-hearted people I've ever met, flirting aside," she stated. "But you? I thought you were better than this. It seems I was wrong. Stay away from my friends, Vasilias, and stay away from me. The next time, Myrtenaster will be your warning."

And with that, she stepped out of the room, following her friends.

 ** _In case you hadn't noticed, I really don't like Neptune's character. Like really, really don't like. When in the show he is apparently a good person by `letting go of Weiss`, he's actually a shitty maschilist. He says "You want Weiss? She's all yours" like Weiss is some kind of object. And before anyone says anything, I'm male and I'm not some crazy sexist against males. Not against the ones who don't deserve it, at least. Furthermore, Neptune is a ladies' man like I've never seen before. He makes me want to punch his face in._**

 ** _And finally someone stepped in to help Jaune. Why Blake? Because she knows what's it like to be belittled and insulted, since she's a Faunus. After she moved out of Menagerie, obviously. There, she's basically a princess..._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	6. Chapter 5

**_Heya guys! Sorry for the long wait. Today was... busy. My little brother forced me to watch Tangled with him... four times. Soon I'll start writing RWBY / Tangled crossovers just because I've seen it too many times. Not that I don't like it, but FOUR TIMES A DAY!? That would drive anyone insane._**

 ** _Oh, wait, I'm already insane._**

 ** _Anyway, enjoy the chapter._**

It's time for a little lesson about an otherworldly mansion, a multiversional keep, an interdimensional stronghold. A place where space and time work different in any other place. A place where the very fabric of timespace is bent to the will of one single entity.

In just two words, Vlakha Naroak.

While the remaining Viewers impatiently waited either for the next part of the universe they were watching to come to the screen or the others to return from their impromptu training session, the Eight Students had trained in one of the arenas of the castle.

That's when the lesson comes into play.

Since time and space are both bent to the will of the houseowner, while they trained for what felt like days, they actually returned to the Watching Hall, sweaty and dead tired, a handful of minutes after they left. Obviously, they weren't given explanations, but they had seen stranger things, for example large fireballs that had teleported them in Vlakha Naroak, and had just accepted it.

And here ends the lesson, thus returning to our story.

They were all about to continue watching the universe about the Elemental Swordsman, but they were interrupted as the table before Blake suddenly caught fire. Almost simultaneously, Neptune's hair burst into flames as well. The blue-haired teen opened his mouth to scream, but before anyone had a chance to do anything, the flames had disappeared.

Leaving Neptune's hair vomit green with bits of what looked like regurgitated food and some green dense liquid dripping from his bangs...

...and Blake with a large plate of fresh sushi in front of her. The innocent fish was already half gone when the two teens realized two notes had been left for them like it happened with Yang's boots.

Both notes simply said:

 _"You know what you did."_

Neptune frowned before realizing what his hair had turned into, and then began cussing up a storm, with Ruby stealing a Lien from him every time he cursed. She usually didn't use her swear jar but with Neptune she felt like she could make an exception.

They all calmed -relatively- down when the screen lit up.

 **Jaune was standing after being hit across the clearing by the Beringel. He was glad he was still using earth energy or he'd be in a lot worse shape. But now he had to worry about this thing. They couldn't fight it and win, at least not without endanger the others. Nora was nearly out of explosives, Ren was still in pain and possibly injured and Pyrrha was exhausted. His eyes darted over to Ruby and the others. "And they're just as exhausted. Them backing us up would just put us all in danger." He stared back at the Grimm and came to a decision. He got into a stance with Dokiri and charged it and the Beringel followed suit. It was interrupted when it got hit in the back with the remainder of Nora's explosives. It turned around and screamed before charging at the others. Pyrrha and Ren started to open fire but it was shrugging off the bullets.**

"Oh fuck," said Yang, the most vocal of them as well as the most vulgar.

"I suggest you to try and disengage as soon as possible," said Ironwood. "A direct confrontation against a Grimm of the level of a Beringel will likely not end well for you."

The others just winced.

 **Jaune acted quickly by hitting Dokiri into the ground as he increased his speed with his aura. "Ren, Rock Blast!" he shouted as four rocks flew out of the ground. Ren used an aura palm strike on the rocks and sent them flying at the Grimm. The rocks hit it and slowed it down enough for Jaune to get between it and his friends. He sliced his sword against the ground towards it and a rock wave erupted towards it. It sent the Beringel flying back into a tree and before it could recover it, the rock wave smashed it through the same tree. Dokiri ran out of dust at that point and his eyes shifted back to blue. He sheathed Dokiri and turned to the three. "You guys need to meet up with the others and get up that cliff. I'll hold it off til then."**

"Is he insane?!" exclaimed Weiss, shocked by his apparently suicidal decision.

Jaune shook his head. "No, he isn't. You guys are all exhausted, and both Ren and Nora are in no shape for a fight with a Beringel," he said. "The other me is the one with more Aura left as well as the less tired. Between fighting by himself and risking only his life and fighting all together but risking all _your_ lives, he chose the right one."

"Only if you're as selfless as you are," said Ruby.

Jaune shook his head. "Ruby, look at that. You are in no shape for further fighting. Sure, a hit or two maybe you would land, but at the first hit from that thing, you might die," he replied. "Risking eight lives against risking one. He chose strategically."

"I cannot disagree with Mr Arc," stated Winter. "As painful as it is, sometimes someone has to sacrifice themselves to save others. It's either them, or all of them."

"This doesn't mean we have to like it, though," mumbled Yang. Many agreed.

"No, you don't have to like it," said the Headmaster. "But you have to learn it."

 **They all looked at him in shock and were going to protest before he gave them a glare. "No arguments. Every one of us is exhausted, but I'll be able to hold it off long enough for all of you to get out and then I can follow you with Fukiri." He handed Pyrrha their relic. "Don't worry, I'll meet you guys up there. Just go before it tries going after you guys again." They all looked at each other before Nora hugged Jaune.**

 **"Please don't die, Jaune." She was shaking.**

 **Jaune returned the hug and placed his forehead on the top of her head. "I won't. You've lost enough, you won't lose me. I swear it and an Arc never goes back on his word." They separated and Jaune gave a nod to Ren and a smile to Pyrrha. The Beringel started to get back up and Jaune turned around with newfound determination. He applied pressure with his right index fingers and the sheathes rotated to his right shoulder and the middle left blade's handle deployed. He unsheathed it and the circuits and edges glowed blue and his eyes shifted to a slightly darker shade of his usual blue. The two charged at each other, "Flood, Suikiri!" he shouted and water manifested on the blade as he fired compressed water blasts at the Grimm. The water exploded on the Grimm's bone armor which only made it angrier. When they were close enough, the Beringel leaped towards Jaune with a fist. Jaune was able to narrowly dodge the punch and was able to cut it across its ribs. When Jaune was directly behind it, he formed a water whip around the blade and whipped the Beringel on the back to keep its attention.**

"Wow," said Blake. She didn't like water but she could admit that seeing it being weaponized like that was awesome.

"And so now we know all the five elements in the swords," stated Jaune. "Raikiri is Lightning, Kakiri is Fire, Dokiri is Earth, Fukiri is Air and now Suikiri is Water."

Neptune scowled, still sore for the slaps earlier, and sneered. "Oh well, five things he has more than you, doesn't he?" Jaune looked downcast and Neptune felt a fleck of satisfaction. "Instead, what do _you_ have? An old sword, some friends who pity you, and what else? I doubt you even know the meaning of intelligence or smartness. From what Weiss told me you're also awful with women. I really pity your friends. Putting up with someone like you and not letting their distaste show? That must be harder that school itself. But they are really pretending well, even playing the part of the good teammates to keep up the act. That takes skill... even if I don't think they would need much to fool you. Throw you a bone here and there and you'll be happy, like the little useless pet you are."

Jaune slumped even more, but not as much as he did when no one intervene in his favour. Maybe Neptune's words were true. He looked around, but all his friends were focused on the screen, as if they hadn't even heard the speech. A little bit of light left his eyes and he sighed. "I should've expected this," he said sadly. "I'm just a faker."

Unbeknownst to him, a sparkle of purple had appeared in everyone else's ears, preventing them from hearing Neptune's hurtful words. Goodwitch began to sweat as she continued to use her Semblance to keep the soundwaves from reaching her students' ears. She knew that what Neptune had said was hurting Jaune, but she believed that the best way to strengthen one's self wasn't relying completely on one's friends. If Jaune wanted so badly to prove Neptune's words untrue, he would need to do so on his own, not by waiting for his friends to defend him. He was a Huntsman in training, not some sort of child to be protected and pampered.

 **The Beringel lunged at Jaune and he was able to dodge at the last second. He was backpedaling while firing more water blasts at it, trying to find a weak point. Jaune stopped and stabbed Suikiri into the ground and sent water into it. The Beringel jumped in to the air to try and slam its arms into Jaune, and he once again dodged away at the very last second. The Beringel got its arms stuck in the thick mud that was made and Jaune took the opportunity to switch out Suikiri for Kakiri. As his eyes shifted to crimson he landed an upward slash across its back and flames cover its back. Jaune kept it up with a downward slash and more flames appeared. He screamed and with the last of Kakiri's dust, slashed horizontally across the back and the Beringel was engulfed in a ball of flames. Jaune was turning around to check on the others as the Beringel backhanded him through the flames. Jaune was sent back to the edge of the cliff and his rerebrace was sent flying into the chasm. He was getting up slowly and turned to see the Beringel already about to be on him. He sheathed Kakiri and closed his eyes. "I guess I'm not a true Arc. Couldn't keep my word."**

Everyone watched in worry as death apparently closed in to the Swordsman. Jaune sighed. "Even in a universe where I'm at Pyrrha's level of power, it seems I would still get myself killed."

 **Before he knew what was happening, Jaune heard gunshots and opened his eye to see Ruby flying in with Crescent Rose. The Beringel jumped back and Ruby landed in front of him. "You okay, Jaune?"**

 **Jaune looked at her in disbelief, "What are you doing? You guys are supposed to be getting out of here! Ruby, why did you come back?!"**

 **She didn't turn around. "I can't lose my first friend. I won't."**

 **Jaune's eyes widened and Ruby took off. She was firing at the Beringel and when she was close, she slashed across it but only hit the bone armor. The Beringel was about to slam its fists down on top of her before she disappeared in a flurry of rose petals and was above it. She fired into the air and came down with Crescent Rose like a guillotine to finish the Grimm. But the Beringel moved and Crescent Rose got stuck in its shoulder. It screamed in pain and anger before punching Ruby, Crescent Rose tore through its shoulder and Ruby was sent flying. Ruby landed in a heap and the Beringel barreled down at her to finish her with one last punch.**

"RUBY!" was everyone's response to the dismal scenario.

Jaune tightened his hands into fists and shook. "It's my fault," he whispered under his breath. "It's my fault if she got hurt. And if I get them hurt even when I'm so strong, I don't even want to know what will happened in our universe, where I can barely hold my own against a few Beowolves..."

Ruby punched his shoulder. "Hey, that's not true!" she scolded him. "Why do you keep doubting yourself like that? Trust us when we say you're not half bad for someone who started with no training."

Jaune smiled slightly before Neptune's words came back to his mind. He scowled as his temporary good mood was ruined.

 **Jaune applied pressure with his ring fingers, the sheathes on the left and right of the middle sheathe moved to his shoulders. The handles deployed and he drew Suikiri with his left as he drew Fukiri with his right, His left eye turned a slightly darker blue and his right eye shifted to light green. He shot off across the clearing with his aura. As he got in front of Ruby, he used Suikiri to draw all the water he summoned in front of them as a water shield and used Fukiri to form a wave of wind behind it. The two elements formed a pressurized water wall. The Beringel fist was slowed down but Jaune still took a hit to the chest. As he was pushed back, he pointed both blades at it and fired a pressurized water stream that sent it flying into the forest. Jaune coughed up some blood before he turned to Ruby. "You alright, Ruby?"**

To say everyone was shocked would've been an understatement, but Jaune was the first to recover, having already accepted to expect incredible things from his other, far better self. "He can use two Elements simultaneously, apparently," he noted, observing the fight keenly. "But it seems to be taking a toll on him."

Neptune snorted. He too hadn't noticed Goodwitch's influence last time and had taken it as the proof he was searching for, so he took the chance to spout bullshit again. "Well, at least he can do something to save his friends," he snarked malignly, taking a certain degree of pleasure in seeing him squirm uncomfortably. Still sore for the earlier event as well as the new look of his hair, he continued. "Had you been there instead, Ruby would've died. She still might, in this universe. I think you should just quit and..."

He couldn't finish his sentence because someone had grabbed him and lifted him up in the air. Seeing the blond hair, he shrank, thinking to have been either caught by Yang or lifted by Goodwitch's Semblance. Then he stared into blue eyes and was shocked. _'Sun?!'_ he thought.

It wasn't Sun.

Jaune kept him in the air as he glared at him. "I may not be the strongest fighter here, nor will I ever be. And I may even be a miserable weakling if compared to anyone else in here, but believe me when I tell you this," he hissed with fury in his normally calm eyes. "Right now, right here, I swear an Oath of the Arc family Knighthood to always stand up for my friends and do whatever it takes to protect them, be it be killed... or kill."

Everyone felt a shiver run down their spines as Jaune dropped Neptune back on his couch. Ironwood was slightly surprised that Goodwitch hadn't stepped in, but he was surprised to see her smiling slightly and nodding imperceptibly, as if approving the boy's actions and words. The other students stared at Jaune with, for the first time, a tiny bit of fear. The last word had sounded awfully sinister.

 **She stared at him. "Forget me! Are you?! You just coughed up blood!"**

 **"I'm fine." He wiped the blood away and looked towards the ruins where he saw the others looking like they were coming to join them. "Forgive me, Ruby." He placed Fukiri in front of Ruby and sent her flying to the others with a blast of wind. "Nora, catch!" Nora immediately jumped up and caught Ruby before she landed with the others. While they were distracted he took off towards the forest.**

"What's that dolt doing, taking it on alone?!" shouted Weiss. "He's gonna get himself killed!"

"I already said it once, Weiss," stated Jaune, and everyone shivered at how colder he now sounded. His eyes were narrowed. "It's the best course of action. By strategy and by heart."

 **As he entered he saw that the Beringel had smashed through a few trees and was getting up and staring angrily at Jaune. Jaune just stared it down. "I'm almost out of aura and nearly out of dust. This is going to be extremely risking and I may just end up killing myself. Nora may actually break my legs for this." He turned around and saw everyone was still at the ruins. "At least they aren't in range." He turned back to the Beringel and closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He focused on the two energies coexisting within his aura: the storming wind and the flooding water. Using his aura as a catalyst he started to fuse the two elements. As the fusion was completing, he heard the Beringel barreling down on him again. Jaune reflexively combined his swords together as the fusion was done. A flash of light blue was released from Jaune, which created a layer of ice on the ground around them and temporarily froze the Beringel in place.**

"What is he doing?!" exclaimed Winter, shocked.

Jaune opened his mouth to reply, but Ozpin was faster. "Apparently, his Semblance also allows him to fuse two Elements together. I'm not sure if it is a true fusion or just using them together, but apparently he is going to use the Dust from both the swords at the same time, thus making it act like a completely new Element."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," agreed Jaune, darkly.

* * *

 **The others just made it across the chasm as the felt a gust of ice cold air wash over them. They all stopped, Nora and Ren shared a wide eye look with each other.**

 **"Did Jaune just use what I think he did?" Nora asked Ren worried.**

 **Ren nodded, "I believe he did, Nora." Ren was equally worried but just didn't show it. Ruby and Pyrrha tried to run past them but were stopped when Ren placed his hand on Pyrrha's shoulder and Nora wrapped her arms around Ruby. They both started to yell at them while everyone stopped to see what was going on.**

 **"We can't help Jaune anymore." Nora said very worried.**

 **Everyone looked at her in confusion before Ren explained. "Jaune is using a very dangerous technique. It could kill him." Everyone was shocked and were about to run to help before he continued. "If we get involved, Jaune will worry about us more than the actual fight and that will get him killed." He looked at the direction Jaune went. "All we can do is believe in him now." Everyone looked out in the same direction and worried for their friend's life.**

"What's going on?" asked Blake, confused and worried about the Swordsman.

"Just like using an Element is tiring for him, using two Elements could be twice as tiring," explained Jaune before pausing and adding. "...or exponentially more tiring."

* * *

 **Jaune was standing in the middle of the frozen terrain. He still had his eyes closed but now Suikiri and Fukiri were now a double-edged longsword, with the circuits and edge now glowing a light blue. Jaune exhaled, his breathe a mist, and he opened his eyes. He was now staring at the Beringel breaking its legs out of the ice with his now light blue eyes. "Freeze, Hyokiri."**

"I don't know what that means, but from the `catchphrase` I'd hazard a guess for Ice or Freeze Dust," said Winter, their resident expert on Dust. "Why, though?"

"Because Air and Water is usually represented as Ice," replied Jaune. "He is using a new Element, Ice. It's not using both Air and Water. He combined them into a truly new Element, with different abilities and perks."

Neptune couldn't help a remark. "How it is that now you know so much, Arc?" he asked doubtfully. "Not like you're an expert on being strong."

Before anyone could reply, Jaune shrugged. "I say what I think," he replied. "But now I don't worry if I'm being wrong or not."

 **The Beringel was about to charge before Jaune swung his sword horizontally and four ice spears formed and fired off at the Beringel. Three of the spears impaled it in the upper arms and chest. The Beringel shouted and charged again, Jaune charged at it and slashed Hyokiri across the ground towards the Grimm. An ice wave erupted towards it and slammed into its chest, stopping it. It screamed again and smashed the ice. Jaune used this to run past it and slash across its ribs. He cut it and left a large chunk of ice. Jaune used the icy ground to slide behind and slash at the back of its knees to immobilize it. Jaune jumped over the Beringel, dragging his blade up its back and at the top of its opposite shoulder from the one that Ruby cut into, leaving thick ice in its wake. Jaune landed in front of it but with all the ice and wounds, it couldn't counterattack. Jaune screamed and stabbed it through the chest and started sending energy into it. The Beringel was about to cave his head in with its free arm before Jaune removed his sword and at that instant it was flash frozen. Jaune sent the last of his aura into his fist and shattered the Beringel.**

Everyone was speechless. They had expected Ice to be somewhat stronger than Air or Water, but not this much. Also, seeing a giant Grimm like a Beringel being shattered into pieces was not something they saw every day.

 **Jaune looked down at the shattered Grimm before he sighed in relief before he split his longsword and returned the two swords to their respective sheathes. His eyes reverted to their usual blue before Jaune fell to his knees breathing raggedly. He was shaking like crazy and his teeth were clattering from the cold he subjected himself to. Before he knew it, he heard people shouting his name and when he turned around he was tackled by Nora and Ruby. They were both almost in tears and were constantly asking him if was okay until Ren and Yang pulled them off of him.**

"Why is he cold?" asked Weiss, worried. "Shouldn't be Ice Element protect him?"

Jaune shrugged. "The other Ren said it could kill him," he replied. "Either it's a particular case of Aura exhaustion, or the Ice Dust he absorbed is still in his system and quickly shutting it down by hypothermia." This scared the others, worried that the Swordsman might die.

Ozpin sighed but shook his head. "Somehow, I doubt Phoenix would've brought us here if that were the case," he said. "I believe this story will continue for quite a while, and since Jaune Arc seems to be the most important one there, it's unlikely he will die."

Everyone breathed out in relief. Jaune nodded, acknowledging Ozpin's point. He looked down at his notes on the Swordsman's fighting style and added the possibility of some kind of backslash. He still left a question mark beside it, not being sure about it. He didn't want to mess his notes up with uncertain details.

The others just hoped their usual Jaune would be back soon.

 **Pyrrha approached him, "Jaune, are you okay?!" She was just as worried as the others, maybe more so.**

 **"I-I-I'm f-fine, Pyrrha." He stuttered and tried to stand before his shaking legs caused him to fall to his knees again. Everyone looked at him with concern and Ren stepped in front of him with a stern glare.**

 **"You overdid it again, didn't you?"**

 **Jaune chuckled nervously, "J-j-just a l-little bit. I-I'll be f-fine soon."**

 **Ren knew better. "Last time you were like this you had slight hypothermia and almost had frostbite."**

"Called it," said Jaune. "And apparently this isn't the first time he gets a similar backslash from using too much his Semblance. I'm starting to think there's a pattern here."

 **Everyone looked at him in a mix of worry and disbelief as Jaune tried to wave it off, "Y-your just e-e-e-e-exaggerating." They all stared at him before he lowered his head. "O-okay, I maybe in b-bad shape."**

 **Ren sighed, "You're out of aura so you can't use your Semblance to heat up and we don't have enough aura to jump start your aura. We need to heat you up, fast."**

"Hypothermia," repeated Neptune, frowning. "Continuous movement, not letting him sleep but most of all should be bodily contact to share body heat." He blinked when everyone looked at him. "What? Sometimes I went on a holiday on the mountains of Atlas and the guides always told everyone this stuff."

"Also alcohol might help," added Qrow, lifting his flask. Winter sighed but for once she couldn't disagree.

 **Before anyone could react, Yang ran towards him and pulled him into a hug with Jaune's head on top of her breasts. Jaune flushed, "Y-y-yang!? W-what are y-you doing?"**

 **"Considered it a thank you for saving my sister, twice." She said sincerely.**

"Full body contact," replied Neptune with a `it was obvious` gesture.

"It won't be enough to warm him up fast enough," noted Ironwood.

"I think I know what's gonna happen," said Yang, nodding slightly. "That'll warm him up."

 **Jaune was still blushing, "I a-appreciate it, Y-yang but is this t-the r-right…" Jaune gasped as he felt a large amount of heat radiating from Yang. It felt so good considering he was freezing. He leaned into Yang and waited to get warm. Yang smirked at this and just held him. She felt his arms wrap around her back and pull her slightly closer to him. She would've thought he was trying to pull something if he was anyone else, but Jaune wasn't that kind of guy. He was trying to get warm. Although it did feel nice to have his arms around her. She felt safe. Soon he stopped shaking and he sighed before letting go of her. He looked at her and smiled. "Thank you, Yang. I feel a lot better now."**

"My Semblance, as a side effect, generates heat. That is why my hair sometimes floats as if in a current of hot air. Because it is," explained Yang. "The flames you see aren't illusions. I don't think I could really lit a fire, but it helped saving him from hypothermia."

Jaune nodded. "You're a human stove," he commented with a chuckle. Yang blinked, unused to the paragon, but then shrugged. A hard-hitting stove, but a stove nonetheless.

 **Yang smiled back at him. "No problem, Hero."**

 **They stayed kneeling on the ground for a few more seconds, "Uh, Yang? You can let go now." Jaune said slightly confused.**

 **Yang blushed slightly before she let go of him and stood quickly. "Right, sorry."**

 **Jaune started to stand while Ren and Pyrrha got on either side of him to help him up. "Take it easy until your aura returns, Jaune" Ren told him. Jaune merely nodded. Ruby was quickly in front of him.**

 **"Jaune, seriously. How did you do all of that!?" she looked like she was about to burst.**

 **Jaune chuckled, "I'll explain it to all of you when we get back to Beacon. But let's get out of the Grimm infested forest." They all nodded and they started making their way back to the cliff and to finish their initiation.**

"A wise decision," chuckled Ozpin. "You just faced three high-level Grimm. Anything more and you might risk your lives."

"Aww, it's over already," pouted Nora, crossing her arms over her chest. "We'll have to wait until the next viewing!"

"I'm sure it won't be long," said Ren. "Usually, there's just a handful of minutes between one and the other."

Neptune was eyeing Jaune with curiosity. He knew his words had cut him deep, but the blond seemed to have returned to his cheerful self. Yang had punched the blue... no, vomit-green-haired teen several feet into the wall for what he had said, and Neptune was still in the hole, not really keen on coming back to face all the other students. Even Sun seemed to be disapproving his behaviour. Also because he had found out that the girl Neptune was forcing him to try and get a date from was Ren. Not that he had anything against Ren, of course. But Nora being Nora and Sun not really being into Rens, the ship wasn't gonna sail.

Nora would make sure of that.

 ** _If you want to complain that Neptune is not that bad, save your breath. I know I'm being biased, but I'm write Neptune bashing probably for the entirety of this fic. Depends on what LordHellPhoenix wants me to write. So long, he's okay with bashing him._**

 ** _As for Jaune, don't worry: he's not becoming a Dark Knight or something. He just focused much more on the screen and so turned a bit colder. Usually, when one is focused they also appear colder. And no, he's not gonna become OP._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	7. Chapter 6

**_Heya guys! I'm baaack! Remember my little brother, Tangled, and four times? ...It happened again. I'm so dead today. But let's not dwelve into the bad things! The good news are that a new chapter of Viewing Jaune Arc: the Elemental Swordsman is out! And it is a very important chapter, too..._**

 ** _Anyway, enjoy the chapter._**

The minutes had passed pretty quickly, given how Blake had somehow found a secret passage or something to the library. Even Ironwood and Qrow, both not really into reading, had chosen a book each to pass the time.

However, before they could even begin to complain about the delay, a flame appeared in the middle of the room. Neptune, who was sitting on a nearby couch, jumped away in cautiousness. The fire enlarged until it was as tall as a person, and then simply subsided.

In its place was standing Phoenix, who smiled lightly at them. "Hello everyone," he saluted them before noticing something. "Did anyone notice that I teleported Ms Goodwitch in here during the last viewing?"

Everyone glanced at Goodwitch and back at him. Then, in a comical and anime-style way, their eyes shot back to the teacher, shocked by her presence. She merely raised an eyebrow in response. Phoenix chuckled. "I decided to have her watch this universe as well. I've also brought Cardin Winchester to watch."

Many groaned at that, no one more than Jaune.

"Yes, I know, you don't like him," acknowledged the Writer. "But I think it could be an enlightening experience for everyone, don't you think?"

No one thought so.

Not like the Writer cared.

After the bully was allowed to enter the room, unenthusiastically greeted by the others, and sat down, Phoenix walked up to Jaune. "Even when I'm not here physically I know what's going on in here thanks to a friend of mine who keeps me informed," he said. "I'd like to have a word with you."

"Err... okay?" replied Jaune, standing up and following the Writer in a corner. He frowned, ready to tell him that if he wanted to keep it secret, then a corner wasn't a good place for it, but then thought better of it. The man was basically a god... maybe mightier. Privacy probably wasn't all that important to him. "What do you want to speak about with me?"

Phoenix mumbled and nodded before Jaune was outlined with flames. It lasted just a second, so quick he didn't even have the time to be startled before everything was back to normal.

"I observed how much it pains you not never to be at your friends' level," said Phoenix, exotic words sounding foreign and yet understandable to him. "And it's because of this that I want to remind you of the price of power." **(Khor's note: this is actually the translation of what Phoenix is saying.)**

Jaune frowned but nodded nonetheless. He knew the price of power: training. Everyone else had trained, some more than the others. Ruby had been trained by her uncle for a couple of years and she had gotten so much better she had been moved up ahead of two years. Others had trained for longer with more or less the same results. He hadn't trained.

"So I wanted to tell you of a few universes I know in which you, Jaune Arc, have a great power," continued the Writer. "In one of these, all your friends turn their backs on you. Your secret is ratted out by Cardin, the whole school hates you and your dearest friends abandon you. After almost dying to try and prove that you're worthy of being at Beacon, you choose to embrace Darkness. You get great power, and you defeat the entire Team CRDL without minimal effort. But you also become a dark and cruel person who has no problem inflicting pain"

Jaune paled, but Phoenix wasn't done.

"In another, you lose _absolutely. Everything,_ " stated the Writer, emphasizing the last word. "All your friends are dead, killed horribly before your eyes. And you're dying as well... but then you bargain your very soul for something else. For revenge. You lost everything, even your very soul, but you gained a power that was unmatched in all of Remnant."

Jaune looked aside. "But was it worth it?" he asked bitterly. The others looked at him, since he was speaking normally and not some strange idiom they didn't know.

Phoenix shrugged. "Who knows? You had already lost everything. I don't think you minded the price at that point," he replied before his eyes narrowed. "In another, instead, you are tortured and experimented upon for ten years. Oh, those experiments give you great power, but you lose your family and your very humanity because of them. With them, you would be able to defeat all your team. Great power... but with a great price as well."

"I don't understand," he said. "I don't want immense power. I just want to be like my friends! As far as I know, _they_ haven't suffered some kind of horrific trauma!"

Phoenix tilted his head sideways. "No, they haven't. But that's because they've trained. You haven't."

Jaune felt the irritation spike. "I asked. I asked to be trained every year of my life, several times over, but I never got a yes," he growled. "I don't know why my family did that, but it surely wasn't _my_ wish."

"That's true, but let's move on, because it wasn't _my_ wish either," continued Phoenix. "In another world, your mother dies when you're seven. Your father turns into a violent drunkard and you have to work to keep your sisters alive. You first prostitute yourself and then even accept lab experiments in order to earn the money. But when you're seventeen, after a failed experiment with Grimm Essence, you fail to protect one of your sisters and your father beat her mercilessly. She survives, but in your rage you kill your father. Your power is there, hidden from sight, but the price is high."

Jaune's eye twitched. "Why?!" he hissed. "Why can't I just _train?!_ Everyone here has trained, not suffered the Seven Hells of Oum to get their power. Why must I be any different?!"

Phoenix narrowed his eyes at him. "Because you _are_ different," he replied. "And finally, in a universe I've seen, your whole family is murdered in front of you. You are first adopted by an assassin and then by Roman Torchwick himself. Your mental sanity is... arguable... but your power is great after having been trained by an assassin and a thief for ten years. As you can see, there are many universe where you have power... it's just that the world isn't fair and there's always a price."

Jaune sighed and nodded. "Whatever. I'm the gods' chew toy, that much I've gathered," he said sarcastically. "Are there any universe were I'm decently trained but I'm not suffering from extreme PTSD?"

Phoenix shrugged. "Yes, there are," he said. "Many of them actually."

"Then why did you only mention the bad ones?" asked the boy.

The Writer grinned. "You'll find out at the end of this viewing." And with that, the screen lit up.

 **Jaune and the others were waiting to be called on stage and have their teams formed. They made it back up the cliffs with little issue and by now, Jaune's aura was high enough so that he didn't need Ren and Pyrrha to help him walk anymore, much to the disappointment of Pyrrha. He was nowhere close to being battle ready but it was better than nothing. Ozpin had just formed Team CRDL and they were leaving the stage as Jaune was going up. The leader, Cardin Winchester, gave him a look as they walked by each other. Jaune raised an eyebrow in question but then shrugged it off. As they were on stage Ozpin continued with the ceremony.**

"What?" said Jaune, confused. "We didn't even see each other before initiation. Why should he glare at me?"

"I have my reasons," grumbled Cardin.

"That are?" inquired Weiss. The bully shut up.

 **"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren. You four retrieved the white rook pieces and from this day forward, shall be Team JNPR. Led by Jaune Arc."**

 **"Wait, what?" Jaune asked in disbelief.**

"I still don't know why Ozpin made that weakling the leader," scoffed Cardin.

"You are still young, inexperienced and blind to the real world," stated Phoenix, slightly annoyed. "Mere power isn't what defines a true leader. A leader is a person before a warrior, an example before a person and a friend before an example. Power is one of the less necessary skills required to be leader."

The bully scoffed again but held his tongue.

 **"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin said with a grin. Before Jaune could say anything, Pyrrha gently punched him on the shoulder with a smile and Nora pulled Ren and him into a bear hug. Pyrrha looked on with a small smile before Jaune wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into it. She was shocked but enjoyed it none the less. Afterwards they left as Ruby and the rest of their group went on stage. Jaune gave them a smile and waited to hear what was coming next.**

"Oh, well, at least that Arc didn't fall down like an idiot for Nikos's love tap," laughed Cardin. Neptune raised an eyebrow as that was a new piece of information, but stayed silent. Especially because the entity who had turned his hair into... whatever it was now... was currently sitting not five yards away from him.

Jaune's eye twitched. _'I foresee lots of insults and arguments in the future viewings,'_ he thought glumly.

 **"And finally, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. You four retrieved the white knight pieces and from this day forward, shall be Team RWBY. Led by Ruby Rose." Ruby and Weiss were both shocked by this while Yang wrapped her sister in a hug.**

 **Jaune smiled at his first friend at Beacon, before bringing his fingers to his lips and whistling. "Go Ruby!" She looked over to him and smiled nervously. At that point Ozpin dismissed all the first years, they were going to go to their dorms as Jaune was stretching. "Man, today was something else. I'm gonna sleep like a rock." He chuckled and looked to see everyone giving him a look. "Uh, what?"**

"Uh, what?" was mirrored by their own Jaune Arc as everyone gave him a look. Their looks were different, though, as they agreed with him and didn't really understand what was going on.

"I'm not really sure how I feel about my sister not being the leader," Winter admitted to Ironwood. "But I guess Ozpin chose wisely in making Rose the leader."

"Winter, you're talking about the man who launches students into a Grimm infested forests and pairs them up with the Eye Contact rule," sighed the General. "It is possible for Ms Rose to have been made the leader because he only found the name RWBY fitting for the team and she just so happened to be the first letter."

Winter looked shocked and conflicted at that, but didn't comment on Ozpin's habits. The man, meanwhile, was just enjoying his coffee.

 **Ruby just stared at him. "You said you'd tell us about your Semblance, Jaune."**

 **Jaune looked at everyone and sighed, "Okay, okay. But let's go outside and enjoy the rest of the day." The rest agreed and went into the courtyard. Along the way, Pyrrha was noticing Jaune subconsciously rubbing his upper left arm.**

"Is he hurt?" wondered Pyrrha.

"Who cares?" said Cardin. "He's finally going to explain that freaky Semblance of his! Now everyone shut up, I want to hear him, not you!"

The others would've usually bristled at being given orders by him, but they were too curious about the Swordsman's Semblance to care.

 **"Are you okay, Jaune? You're rubbing your arm."**

 **Jaune looked at her then at his arm before sighing. "Yeah. I'm fine Pyrrha. I just lost my rerebrace when the Beringel hit me. It was a gift from my teacher and it feels wrong that it's gone."**

 **"Oh. Well, maybe your teacher will send you another?"**

 **"Not likely." Jaune said sadly. Pyrrha was going to continue but noticed that Nora and Ren seemed a bit saddened by what he said. She decided to leave it alone for now.**

"What happened?" asked Ruby, confused. She looked around until Yang sighed.

"It means his teacher's probably dead," she explained. The redhead gave a small `oh` and saddened a little.

 **They found a tree off by itself and all sat down around it. Jaune sat with Ren on his right and Pyrrha on his left. Nora sat beside Ren while Ruby and her team sat across from them. Jaune took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts. "Okay. Simply put, my Semblance allows me to absorb a small amount of an element and then manipulate it."**

"That much, we knew," commented Blake. "I hope he'll explain better than that."

"If you shut up, maybe he will," said Weiss.

 **"Can you go into detail?" Ruby asked him looking a bit excited.**

 **Jaune smiled and continued, "Sure. The way it works is that when I want to use an element, I absorb a certain amount of that elements energy. I then mix the energy into my aura and when that process is complete my eyes shift to a different color and I can manipulate the element. Also, I can only absorb the five basic elements: fire, water, wind, earth and lightning."**

"Last time I checked, Lightning wasn't among the basic elements," commented Neptune.

Goodwitch was the one to cut in. "Actually, it's still undecided. The Four Elements are universal, but scientists and philosophers are trying to decide if Lightning is an element on his own or not. Other theories place Light and Darkness among the basic elements as well. It depends on how that universe has been made."

Phoenix nodded. "If it makes you feel any less confused, you may think of it as Energy more than Lightning," he said before frowning slightly. "It wouldn't be really correct but I guess it's easier to understand."

 **"So, you can just absorb energy from the earth? That's pretty badass." Yang smiled at him.**

 **"Sorry but no. I can't absorb the literal elements energy. Their too…raw. The energy is too strong and unpredictable. If I tried that my body would tear itself apart." Everyone besides Nora and Ren were shocked but Jaune shrugged. "Maybe I'll be able to down the line but at this point I'm not ready for that. So, I used another method."**

 **"Dust." Weiss said with confidence.**

 **Jaune nodded to her. "Exactly. The energy in dust is more manageable for me to use. That's why each one of my swords use it. Although like you saw, I can still run out of dust. So, I need to be careful."**

"Like every Dust user in the world, his weakness is the limited amount of Dust he can carry on himself," nodded Goodwitch. "Dust users are among the strongest and most unpredictable fighters of Remnant, but they are heavily relying on their Dust reserves."

"And that's why Dust is often alloyed into weapons," added Ruby. "It grants special performances without consuming it."

"Except our Jauney boy here," snickered Cardin. "The only Dust that sword's ever seen is the one that's gathering on it."

Jaune's eyes narrowed but he didn't reply. Cardin, as rude and offensive as he was, had a point and was telling the truth. Crocea Mors didn't use Dust. It was a miracle it hadn't broken already.

 **"So how did you do some of that other stuff? Like that disappearing thing and taking all those hits?" Ruby asked curiously.**

 **Jaune thought for a second. "I don't think I should tell you. Can't give away all my secrets to another team." Ruby gave him some puppy dog eyes. It was the cutest thing Jaune has ever seen but it had little effect on him. "Ruby, I grew up with seven sisters and Nora." He jerked his thumb at her. "I'm immune to puppy dog eyes and pouts but I'll give you points since yours is by far the cutest." Ruby pouted and blushed slightly, Jaune chuckled. Everyone was shocked about the seven sisters thing but before anyone could ask anything, Jaune spoke up. "Do you wanna know about my Semblance or my sisters? Can't do both." He smirked and no one said a thing.**

"Seven...?" breathed Cardin before looking at Jaune. "This universe too?"

For once there wasn't any animosity in his voice. The blond nodded before the bully rubbed his face with both hands. "Younger ones?" Jaune frowned and nodded, not really wanting to give much info about his family to Cardin but not seeing any danger doing so. The larger student shook his head in disbelief. "You may be a weakling, Arc, but I have newfound respect for you. I got only one, and sometimes I still freak out."

Jaune blinked at the new information. "Er... well..." he said, not really expecting the praise. It was praise, right? "I... got used to it, I guess?"

Meanwhile, Ruby was pouting because her puppy eyes hadn't worked. "That's why he's so hard to move," she mumbled. She would need to come up with something else to convince him to give her cookies when Yang didn't want to.

 **"Okay then. As I said earlier, my aura mixes the elemental energy into itself and because of that, my body gains a boost to a physical attribute of mine. But, there is a weakness to each one though."**

 **"Like what?" Pyrrha was curious of any short comings of her partner.**

 **"Well, when I absorb earth my body becomes heavier but because of that my durability goes way up. But the weight slows my movements down, as well."**

 **"That's how you took those hits from the Death Stalker and Beringel with little protection. And why you didn't dodge the attacks." Jaune nodded. "What else can you do?" Pyrrha asked.**

"Oh well, at least he doesn't just get extra power," noted Weiss. "That would've really been unfair."

"Says the one who has the family Semblance that basically allows her to create Glyphs doing more or less anything from creating shards of ice, time manipulation and physical manipulation," snarked Phoenix, looking at her. "And apart from the drain on your Aura, your Semblance has no drawbacks."

 **"When I absorb wind, my body becomes lighter and that increases my stamina but also decreases my durability. That one is better for quick attacks or keeping a distance."**

 **"That's what you used to save us when we fell. Is that why you got hurt?" Weiss asked, she tried to sound professional but Jaune could hear the subtle guilt in her voice.**

 **"Yup. It allowed me to reach you two in time because of my lessened weight and wind manipulation. But we were too close to the ground for me to slow us down. My aura absorbed most of the impact but because my durability was low, I got hurt a bit more than I usually do." He saw Weiss look guilty before he added with a shrug "But, it wasn't bad. Had worse in my training."**

"Well, everyone here has got worse in their training," commented Neptune. "Except Arc. He simply didn't train."

Many glared at the boy but no one said anything as Jaune lifted a hand to tell them not to.

 **That made Weiss feel a bit better and then Ruby chimed in. "How did you get to Weiss and I when the Death Stalker attacked?" She asked, brimming with curiosity.**

 **Jaune smiled. "Oh, that's what lightning does. My body becomes so charged with electricity that my speed goes off the charts. Although, due to the speed I'm moving at, I get a bit tunnel visioned." He chuckled. "Ran into a lot of things when I was learning to control it." Ruby smirked at that.**

 **"And throwing me across that chasm?" Blake asked, saying something for the first time since the teams were made.**

 **"That's what fire does. It increases my strength many times over but my body gives off such a high amount of heat that my stamina goes way down."**

 **Yang looked at him with interest. "Huh, small world."**

 **Jaune was curious but decided to continue with his explanation. "Finally is water, it allows my reflexes to go up. So I can dodge attacks at the last second and come out fine. That's what I used to stall the Beringel. The trade off is my strength goes down." He leaned back and looked up at the sky. "Aside from that, the only other weakness to my Semblance is if I switch between too many elements too quickly, my body will experience fatigue until my aura stabilizes again." He looked to everyone. "Any questions?"**

"And that's probably the Aura overexhaustion we saw earlier," noted Jaune. "He was using quite a bit of Elements."

"Oh well, at least he's not a weakling," commented Cardin. Everyone sighed at the bully's antics.

 **Everyone was quiet for a second before Ruby thought of something. "Jaune?" He looked at her. "When you saved me from the Beringel, you had two different colored eyes, why?"**

 **"Oh, that's because I was using two elements in conjunction." He said casually.**

 **Pyrrha looked at him in shock, "You can do that?"**

"Apparently, he can," said Jaune. "You think that ice thing was him using Air and Water in conjunction?"

"I don't know," admitted Ozpin. "It appeared something more, but we can't be sure. Also, when using Ice he had both eyes of the same colour, not green and blue."

 **Jaune nodded. "Yup. Only do it when the situation is serious though." They all looked at him with a question but he beat them to it. "When I have an element mixed with my aura, it uses my aura at an accelerated rate. Nothing too serious considering my aura reserves but it's something I don't prefer to do. When I quickly switch between elements, I use my aura 1.5 times than I normally do with one element until it stabilizes. But when I use two in conjunction, each one of my eyes take on a color but my aura is used twice as fast. I also gain both the positive and negatives of using each of the elements so it can be risky at times."**

"I must praise the Swordsman's dedication," said Ironwood. "Not many study their Semblance to the point of being able to extrapolate the exact amount of strain it puts on their Aura."

"He got it wrong many times before finally getting it right," chuckled Phoenix.

 **Everyone nodded at that and was quiet until Blake brought up a point they were all curious about. "What about all that ice? How'd you do that?" they all looked at him expectantly. He sighed again and thought on how to explain it.**

 **"You see ice is what I refer to as an 'advance' element. To use ice, I have to have both wind and water elemental energies inside me. Once that happens, I use my aura as a catalyst to fuse the two energies together. But when that happens my body has to release a decent size wave of energy of the new element to make sure I don't get overwhelmed. That's why I didn't use it until you guys were outside then blast radius." He breathed and took a second. "Because of that, along with the fact my aura is used 2.5 times faster than normal and my body has to deal with a few repercussions, I don't use it unless it's life or death."**

"So that's why he didn't use it from the start," noted Goodwitch.

Jaune winced. "Not really sure if it was a smart idea or not, though," he said. "I mean, he's right in not using it often, but with the strain and the backslash, he should never use it when he's running low on Aura. Hadn't it been for Yang earlier, he could've died of hypothermia because he had no Aura warming him up."

Everyone considered his words before Phoenix spoke up. "You're not wrong, Jaune, but you have to keep in mind one thing," stated the Writer. "Sometimes it's better to keep your aces in your sleeve as long as you can before using them."

"Such a pity you have no aces at all. You're really path-urk!" laughed Cardin before a rock was chucked at him, throwing him off his couch with a grunt of pain.

Everyone looked at Yang, who shrugged. "Hey, I just asked for a stone in the same way I ask for food, and it appeared," she said. "It was too good to pass up."

 **Everyone was quiet again. "Why'd you do it?" Jaune looked back at Ruby. "We'd you fight that Grimm by yourself and why did you go so far to kill it?"**

 **He didn't want to answer until he saw the worried looks he was getting from all of them. "I knew even if we all ganged up on it, we still wouldn't win. My plan was to hold it off until you guys were safe then retreat. But I miscalculated and got hurt and you stepped in, Ruby." He looked down. "When you got hurt…a part of me snapped. All I could think about was saving you and killing that Grimm. That's what happens when people I care about get hurt." He looked back up at her with a smile. She blushed and looked down. Yang saw this and that reminded her of something. She decided since he was answering questions that now would be a good time.**

"Aww..." most cooed. Ruby blushed and glanced at Jaune, who was nodding his agreement.

"He's got the heart in the right place," he said. "He knows what is right."

"Too bad you're too weak to protect anyone," sneered Cardin.

Phoenix frowned but it was Nora the one to reply, to the shock of everyone. "And you say it like it's a flaw?" she asked cheerfully. "I see it as strength and courage. He is the weakest of us all, yes, but despite his lack of a supercool weapon or training he would still go out of his way and risk his life for us. While your teammates, if I'm not wrong, abandoned you before a mere Ursa Major, and they were all trained." Everyone looked at her, stunned. She just grinned. "Being untrained and still fighting the hell out of yourself? That's the real strength."

Phoenix smiled. "Well said." Everyone else was just too gobsmacked to say anything.

 **"Jaune, you said a relationship between you and Ruby wouldn't work and then told me practically the same thing when I was teasing you. Why is that?"**

 **Jaune froze and everyone got quiet. Ren and Nora were looking at Jaune with concern while everyone else was looking at him with different levels of curiosity. Jaune didn't want to talk about this. Not at all. He was about to say that but something stopped him. Something inside of him wanted to get this out in the open and stop bottling it up.**

"I don't like this," said Winter. "The Swordsman is hiding pain and that's never a good thing to do."

"Let's just hope he'll be okay," added Ozpin.

 **He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "I didn't mean it the way most of you think. I'd be lucky to be in a relationship with Ruby or Yang. Or any of you for that matter." He looked down and missed the varying level of blush of each of the five girls. "But it's just that I…. can't." They were all stunned by that.**

 **"What do you mean by that, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.**

 **He didn't say anything, just kept looking at the ground in front of him. Ren placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay if you're not ready yet, Jaune. You don't have to push yourself."**

"This is getting scarier and scarier," said Jaune. "What's the big secret?"

 **Nora got up and knelt behind him and wrapped her arms around his upper torso in a comforting hug. "Totally. They'll all understand." They all looked at the three before looking at each other.**

 **Jaune shook his head slightly before continuing. "It's okay. I can do this." The two of them nodded but didn't move, they were going to support him in this. He took a deep breath before speaking, still not looking up. "Our teacher took us with her wherever she went, she thought if we stayed in one place too long our training would become lax. Because of that, we couldn't form and long lasting friendships and romance was never an option. We didn't care because we always had each other." He placed a hand on top of Ren's and brought his other up to gently hold Nora's arm. "Every so often we'd return to our teacher's home village and everyone there knew us. It was our home. There was a girl there, our only friend outside the three of us. She was great." They could see a small smile on his face. "We were close and eventually our friendship turned to more. We were together even though we could hardly be together. But we somehow made it work. Eventually, we called it off on good terms because she was gonna set off on her own journey. But we promised we'd get back together when I became a Huntsman and her journey was complete." He went quiet for a little bit. "A few months before we came here, we went back to our home. I asked if anyone heard anything from her." He started shaking slightly, Nora held him a bit closer and Ren shifted closer to him. "They found out that when she left she was attacked by bandits and they could never find her body."**

Everyone gasped, shocked by the news. Neptune frowned, not really seeing the problem. "I've lost a girlfriend before, I don't see why it would be such a big deal," he said. "Yeah, it hurts, it sucks to be the one left alone, but you get over it."

"And that's why _you_ will never get a real girlfriend," replied Jaune. "I'm not saying the Swordsman is right in denying himself love. But he at least has the heart to show he cared."

Neptune's eyes flashed. "You think I didn't care?" he hissed. "Life is short. I flirt so much because I know it might be my last day doing so or their last day receiving it. But you? What do you do? Nothing."

"Better than being such a womanizer," snapped Jaune.

 **Everyone was looking in horror at him. None of them knew what to do or say.**

 **Jaune took a shaky breath. "I know she's gone. But for some reason a small part of me holds onto the hope that she is okay. And that part of me won't let me grieve, to cry for her. I can't even fully accept that Amber is dead!" he nearly shouted the last part. He was still looking down with his eyes closed now and shaking badly. But no tears fell. He wanted the pain to stop. He didn't want to look up, to see the pity that he always sees.**

 **He felt a hand placed on his shoulder. He slowly lifted his head and opened his eyes to see Ruby standing in front of him with teary eyes. Her eyes held no pity but they were eyes of someone that had felt similar pain. She knelt down in front of him and hugged him tightly, burying her head into his chest right below Nora's arms."I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Was all she said before she started crying.**

"Ruby?" Jaune called out, surprised as the small redhead hugged him as well.

"My mother, Summer Rose, died years ago," she mumbled into his shirt.

Jaune's eyes saddened and he hugged her back. "I'm sorry," he said, knowing fully well the pain she was going through at being remembered of her mother's demise. Having a family full of heroes didn't ensure they all returned home alive, quite the opposite, actually.

 **Jaune was at a loss. And with little hesitation he held her close and put his head on top of hers. That's when the tears finally fell. The dam had broken and there was no stopping it. But he didn't want it to, all he could do was hold onto Ruby and cry. Nora had her head buried into Jaune's back and was also crying for her friend in pain. Ren was still next to Jaune, still there for him but he didn't cry, he had to be strong for the one that was always the strong one. The rest were just staring at Jaune. The guy that for the last day was always happy and in a fight was a natural born leader, strong and determined. None of them realized the pain he was in and now seeing him grieve and cry was so surreal. Finally, Pyrrha had enough, she scooted over next to him and wrapped her arms around his neck before she buried her head into his shoulder and cried her own tears for her partner. Yang soon followed suit and went to Jaune's other side. Ren got up and stood behind Nora to put his hands on her shoulder to comfort her as Yang sat down in his spot and wrapped Jaune, Nora and Ruby in a hug before she buried her face in his shoulder and cried as well. Weiss and Blake didn't know what to do, so they just decided to sit close in case they were needed.**

Many were moved by the heartwarming yet sad scene, even as Sun cooed at them. When the others looked at him, he just shrugged. "What? I like affectionate scenes."

 **They stayed like that until Jaune slowly stopped crying and started to calm down. Eventually he lifted his head and looked at all of them. "I'm sorry about that but thank you guys. I really needed that." He gave them a weak smile. They all just looked at him and gave him reassuring smiles.**

 **Ruby then looked up at him. "We're friends Jaune, that's what we do." Jaune weakly chuckled at that and slowly everyone did as well.**

 **When they all stopped, they untangled themselves and started heading to the dorms. They were soon pleasantly surprised to see that their rooms were next to each other. The two teams wished each other a good night before going into their rooms. Team JNPR than started unpacking and taking showers. Pyrrha had the last one before Jaune, as she was coming out he made his way in and noticed her hair was down. "You look good with your hair down." He mentioned to her. She blushed and he went and took his shower. He dried off and got dressed in his shorts and tank top. He then got out of the bathroom and they all decided to go to bed. Jaune was both physically and emotionally drained and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.**

"Aw, we didn't get to see him naked!" complained Yang, earning blushes and an outraged and embarrassed shriek from Jaune himself.

"Well, would you like if a group of extradimensional people started peeping on you when you're in the shower?" asked Phoenix, and was rewarded by a red-faced Yang sputtering and hiding her face. "Thought so."

 **Jaune was then woken up a few hours later by someone lightly shaking him. He opened his eyes to see Nora standing beside his bed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before whispering. "Nora, what's wrong?"**

 **She looked down nervously before looking up at him. "I had that nightmare again." Nora had nightmares on occasion, on those occasions she usually would sleep with Ren. But this specific nightmare was a recurring one and Ren couldn't help her with it. Jaune nodded, he shifted over in his bed and held the blankets open for her. She got in and laid beside him and as soon as he covered her, she buried her head into his chest. He slowly started stroking her hair to calm her.**

 **"It's okay, Nora. Ren and I are fine. We're still here."**

Nora's eyes were scared. That was the only thing Jaune processed before his body took over and hugged the shorter girl. She was slightly surprised but accepted the action nonetheless. Ren was the one to vocalize their thoughts. "She sees Jaune and me dying."

 **She nodded weakly. "I know. But you really scared me today."**

 **"I'm sorry for that. I made it out okay though, we all did. So, don't dwell on it. Can you do that, for me?"**

 **She didn't say or do anything for a second before she nodded again. "Can I sleep here for the night?" She said without removing her head from his chest.**

 **He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "Of course." She fell asleep almost immediately after that and Jaune soon followed her lead.**

"Sleeping with a girl already? Bol-urk!" Cardin grunted in pain once again as Yang threw another rock, a larger one, at him.

"Stop thinking with your dick!" she shouted at him, completely ignoring the fact she was usually the one to tease others about sexual themes, with both voice and body.

Phoenix smiled, but it was short-lived. As the others entered an argument with Cardin and Neptune about how sleeping with a girl meant nothing if there weren't any feelings backing it up, he asked Jaune to follow him once again. Once they were back in their corner, Phoenix sighed and looked at him.

"Ti ho osservato, Jaune, e ora che vedo tutto questo in prima persona, ho intenzione di farti un'offerta," said Phoenix, the words exotic yet understandable to Jaune. And yet, he could swear he'd never heard that language before. "Cosa diresti se potessi darti il potere che cerchi?" Jaune, surprised, looked at him with a question written clearly in his eyes. "Posso darti parte del mio potere. Potrebbe darti una copia della mia Semblance. Potrebbe coesistere con la tua Semblance or le due potrebbero combinarsi in qualcosa di più potente. Ma ti devo avvisare: il potere ha sempre un costo. Non so dirti cosa dovrai sacrificare per questo potere, purtroppo."

Phoenix's frame was outlined by flames as he spoke. When his entire being was no more visible, he spoke his final words before disappearing.

"Continua a guardare questo universo e pensaci su. Quanto tutto questo sarà finito, dovrai darmi la tua risposta. Non prima, non dopo."

 _ **Phoenix was speaking in Italian, by the way. I'm an Italian native speaker and writer so don't worry, it isn't a Google Translator work. Here is the translation for what Phoenix said:**_

 **"I've been watching you, Jaune, and now seeing this all first hand, I've decided to make you an offer. What would you say, if I could give you the power you want? I can give you some of my power. It could give you a copy of my Semblance. It could be possible for it to co-exist with your own Semblance or both could combine to form something more powerful. But, I should warn you: power always has a cost. What you'll have to give up to have this power, I can't say for sure though. Keep watching this universe and think about it. At the end, I will ask for your decision. Not before, not after."**

 ** _Also, even if I know you will hate me, I have to tell you that no, Jaune won't make his final decision until the end. He might choose yes or no and then think again and choose the other. Nothing's confirmed until the last chapter. Insult me if you want, but don't expect me to give you the answer anytime soon also because...  
I still haven't decided his final answer._  
**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	8. Chapter 7

**_Sorry for the long delay. Normally I update ViewingTES very quickly but this time I was kinda busy and distracted. And no, not with Tangled this time. So... in this chapter we finally get a plot for this story beside watching Jaune Arc: the Elemental Swordsman. Not that I'm not happy with just a viewing fic, but as people pointed out forcing Jaune to watch an alternate version of himself is borderline mental abuse. And that always has consequences. So, here we start! ;)_**

They were all ready to start the new viewing sessions when they realized what had changed.

It started off as a simple drop of dense and greasy liquid landing on Neptune's cheek. The boy had wiped it off with his sleeve, not really caring about it, but soon enough a second droplet had fallen on his jacket. Lamenting the stain now impossible to wash away, he ran a hand through his hair as he did, sometimes, when he was irritated. Only for his hand to come back covered in greasy liquid. It took Weiss fishing a mirror out of her pocket and showing him his new look to understand.

His hair were back to blue.

And that was the only good thing about it.

While he had always taken care of himself in the field of cleanness, he had always been particularly caring for his hair, cutting and styling it so to always keep the perfect cool image. But now his hair, despite being blue, were shiny with an oily, greasy and frankly smelly liquid, a few tips housing drops ready to fall. The boy stared at his reflection in shock while the others were simply puzzled. A note stuck into his hair solved their confusion.

 _"Since you didn't like your last look, I took it upon myself to give you a look that would fully represent yourself. Oily and frankly unappealing. Signed, Phoenix, your host, and Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh, the houseowner."_

A few Watchers had snickered, and the entirety of the Eight Students' expressions had turned into satisfaction. Even Jaune had a wicked little grin as he watched Neptune slump glumly back on his couch.

"What did I do to piss them off?" he lamented. No note answered his question... but Weiss did.

"You've been passive-aggressively insulting Jaune for six viewings now, and given how we've all been brought here to observe his path of a different universe, I have the inkling the gods, or whatever their title was, haven't liked you badmouthing their... favourite mortal," she replied with frost in her voice, and Jaune shivered, knowing that that voice was usually reserved for rejecting him. He did not envy Neptune. "Not just that, you are a womanizer and an all-around flirt. Not one like that."

"Ditto," said the totality of the women in the room. Even Goodwitch was nodding along.

The screen started up again.

 **Jaune was always an early riser and a morning person. More so, after training with his teacher. So, it was natural that he was the first one up out of his teammates. He looked over at them to make sure if they were asleep or not. Ren was dead asleep, normal, so much so most would have actually thought he was dead. Pyrrha was also out, but she was holding one of her pillows against her chest tightly. Jaune chuckled at how adorable it was to see the champion look like that. He looked around for Nora before he remembered what happened last night and looked down. Nora was holding onto him tightly and had her head laying on his chest. This is what he and more often Ren had to deal with when Nora had nightmares. He sighed and started the slow process of untangling Nora from himself while trying not to wake her. Jaune was too nice to do that. After ten minutes he was free and made his way to the bathroom and got dressed in his Beacon uniform. After he was done freshening up and fully dressed. He saw that Nora and Pyrrha were getting up. Nora was already sitting up still half asleep. Jaune walked over to her and started messing up her already dishevelled hair.**

"Aww, I liked him in his pyjamas..." complained Yang, making the boy flush in both embarrassment and shame. "Oh well, I'll have to wait..."

Pyrrha, meanwhile, had to battle the fierce blush that was raising to her cheeks as her crush had just called her adorable... even if from another dimension.

 **"You feeling better, Nora?" Jaune asked with his usual smile.**

 **Nora was trying to stop Jaune with little success. Nora was powerless when she first got up. She tiredly whined, "Jaune, stop. You're messing up my hair."**

"Why can't our Nora be the same?" sighed Jaune. "Why does she always have to be bursting with energy?"

"No can do, Jauney!" smiled Nora. "I'm just like this: unique!"

"Well, we're lucky you're unique, I doubt Remnant could withstand another Nora..." mumbled Blake. She still remembered the time when Nora had somehow managed to unlock their dorm door and had woken up the whole team... quite rudely, too, by throwing herself on top of them with the wake cry of `It's morning! It's morning! IT'S MORNING!`

"There are many things worse than Ms Valkyrie out there," said Goodwitch.

"Then I'm about to rethink my choice of becoming a Huntsman," joked Jaune. "It's already hard to imagine something worse than Nora. I don't need to encounter it."

"Maybe it would be really for the best if you did reconsider your choice..." began Goodwitch before Nora disrespectfully blew her a raspberry.

"We're not at Beacon any more!" the bubbly bomber exclaimed, as to justify her action. "And our Fearless Leader is three times the Huntsman you are! Huntsman aren't measured in strength, but in heart!"

"I can believe that Arc is better than her in being a Hunts _man_ ," snorted Sun, fighting down a laugh. "She's a Hunts _woman_."

Everyone groaned at the pun. _'No one of them has a sense of humour,'_ thought the monkey Faunus.

 **Jaune chuckled, "It's already a mess, Nora." He finally let her push his hand away and looked over to his partner who was looking like she got hit by a train, a stark contrast to the adorable way she looked while sleeping. He chuckled again. It was fun to be the only morning person in the group. "Morning, Pyrrha."**

"That's strange," said the champion. "With my training I'm used to wake up really early, and they drilled into me never to wake up groggy."

"Yeah, yeah, we got it," Yang waved her off. "You're a perfect fighting machine."

 **Pyrrha slowly looked over at him and groggily said, "Morning." with a yawn. She was about to flop onto her bed again before Jaune put his arm under her to stop her. She looked to see what had stopped her from going back to sleep and saw her partner looking down at her with his usual endearing smile. After about a minute of staying like that, her tired mind connected the dots and her eyes snapped open wide along with a blush. She quickly tried to jump out of her bed and away from Jaune but her leg was tangled in her bed sheet. She would've gone head first into the floor if Jaune hadn't caught her. She looked up at him again when she realized she was in his arms and her blush deepened.**

"That's not my partner," stated Jaune, a look of shock on his face. "First, she's immediately alert as soon as she's awake. And second, I've _never ever_ seen her trip. Not even waver a little because of her heels."

"It's an alternative dimension, Jaune," Blake reminded him. "I think we understood that a long time ago."

"Just shocked," he replied. "Not really complaining."

 _'You_ _ **could**_ _just pretend to wake up dazed and trip on purpose, you know?'_ said Pyrrha's treacherous mind. _'And then you would have his arms right around you~'_

 **Jaune sighed at his partner before he gently put her back on her bed. "Let's save you from your bed before you try that again." He said with a small smile. She bashfully nodded while he went to work freeing her. When he was done she gave him a quiet 'Thank you' before he just looked at her. "No problem." He motioned to the bathroom. "It's free if you want it. Nora and Ren are still out." She nodded and quickly made her way to the bathroom. She stopped as she saw Nora still sitting on his bed.**

"Oh, how cute," smiled Nora. "He saved Princess Pyrrha from the monstrous beast BED, that is the acronym of Behemoth Elemental Dragon!"

"Nora, what you just said doesn't make any sense," sighed Weiss even as Jaune shook his head and Pyrrha blushed magma-red. Her cheeks were also trying to reach a magma-level temperature.

 **"Jaune, why is Nora in your bed?" she asked.**

 **He turned back to her, "Oh, Nora gets some intense nightmares on occasions. She usually asks to sleep with Ren or I when that happens." Jaune than rubbed the back of his head nervously. "My little fight with the Beringel really freaked her out." He said guiltily.**

 **Pyrrha nodded before smiling. "You're a nice guy, Jaune."**

 **He smiled before Nora interrupted them, gaining some of her usual energy. "That's our Fearless Leader!" The two laughed at that before Pyrrha retreated into the bathroom. Jaune started to gather his books he'd need for the day. He heard a strange creaking sound and turned to see Nora flying through the air after jumping off of his bed. She was flying right towards Ren's bed. "Ren!" she shouted before she landed on him and the two toppled off the bed.**

"Does she really do that?" asked Sun, shocked.

"No," Jaune reassured him. "She usually shouts at you to wake up and when you do, her face is three inches from yours. You jump, headbutt her, and poof! You're awake."

"Doesn't sound fun," cringed Blake.

"We all learned how to wake up before Nora does," replied Pyrrha, shuddering as she remembered how she had learned that lesson.

 **Jaune sighed again than smiled, thinking 'She's back to normal alright.'**

 **Ren slowly got up from the floor and looked at Jaune. They stared at each other for a minute before Ren spoke, "Why?"**

A few laughed at Ren's complete deadpan expression, and even the boy himself chuckled a bit.

 **Jaune shrugged, "She was already in the air and more than halfway to you. There was no stopping her at that point and if I tried I'd be on the floor with you two."**

"Fair enough," sighed the ninja of JNPR, shaking his head.

 **Ren accepted the truth and sighed before Nora jumped back to her feet. She started rambling about how excited she was, Ren just listening stoically and Jaune was listening while gathering the rest of his things. Pyrrha came out of the bathroom in her uniform and saw the three interacting and smiled sadly. Jaune noticed this. "Pyrrha, what's up?"**

 **She quickly put her polite smile on, "Nothing, Jaune."**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow at her, "Really?" He kept looking at her. She looked away but when she turned back he was still giving her that same look. She finally relented.**

 **"I'm just feeling a little… left out is all."**

"She feels the third wheel... or the fourth, in this case," explained Winter.

"I'm sorry!" exclaimed Nora, jumping and hugging the fellow redhead. "I didn't mean to make you sad!"

"It's okay, Nora," Pyrrha wheezed out, trying to pry her off with next to no results. "It wasn't your fault..."

 **"Why?" Jaune asked in shock and curiosity.**

 **She was nervously rubbing her one arm. "Well, you three have known each other for a while and now I just come out of nowhere. I just feel like I'm intruding." she said sadly.**

 **Jaune was about to deny that before Nora bolted across the room and stopped in front of her and clearing in her personal space. "That's silly." she plainly said.**

 **Pyrrha was slightly taken back. "What?"**

 **"You're part of our team now, that makes you a part of our family. No excuses." To emphasize her point, she hugged her close.**

 **She just looked down at Nora and then at her two other teammates, who were now standing next to each other. Jaune had his arm on Ren's shoulder with a grin. "I told you before Pyr, we aren't just friends. We're a family. When you became my partner, you became a part of this family. Hope you're okay with that because you're stuck with us now." He smiled widely and Ren gave her a nod and a reassuring grin.**

"See?" said Yang with a smile. "You're no more the thir... fourth wheel! We would never let someone be uncomfortable because he thinks not to be fitting in!"

Jaune darkened. "Except you never notice or do anything when _I_ am the one uncomfortable," he murmured reproachfully, so low only Blake heard him. She turned to look at him with a question in her amber eyes, but he didn't notice.

"Jaune, what's wrong?" she asked, earning the attention of everyone. Jaune jumped and looked at her, confused, his mind already trying to come up with an excuse. She saw through that. "You said we never notice or act when you're the one being uncomfortable. Why did you say that?"

The seven students were all staring at him, confused, surprised and a tad angry. What had they done to earn his disappointment? He was halfway through trying to say it was nothing, but then irritation flared. "Well, maybe I'm talking about every time you all start speaking about stuff I know nothing about and no one ever cares to remember me," he stated coldly, his voice making most of them flinch. "Maybe if you could remember, maybe once per day, that I'm nowhere near your level of combat training _and_ academic knowledge, and that talking about advanced topics or over-the-top combat actions are sure ways to get me to stand awkwardly on my own while you all talk about that, it would make me feel marginally less of an idiot," he continued, his eyes dark and his face cut from stone. "And maybe you _could_ have helped me with Cardin's bullying, instead of just standing there and pitying me and asking me if I needed help. Of _fucking course_ I needed help. Cardin regularly kicks my ass in Combat Class, why should he not do it out of it? And Pyrrha, by the way, I know of your intervention in Forever Fall. As low as you think of me, you should at least give me a bit of credit: I'm not retard enough not to notice when my shield literally moves on its own."

Pyrrha's eyes widened but before she could speak, Goodwitch interrupted. "Mr Arc, it is not their fault if you are far behind everyone in Beacon in both combat and academic grades," she reminded him frostily, not liking to hear skilled students such as RWBY and NPR to be scolded for being too good for the boy. "And as for Mr Winchester's undoubtedly disagreeable actions, Beacon is a school for Huntsman. You should've thought about it before. If you can't handle your own, then you're not fit to be at Beacon."

The Professor knew her words were harsh, but she also knew that if the boy continued to be stubborn and didn't leave the school, he would soon be injured or worse dead. And while she personally did not like him, she surely didn't want to see him die.

However, what she did not expect was for Jaune to turn to face her with a pensive expression. "You know what, Professor?" he said, and she did not like in the slightest the feeling his voice gave her. Like she should be happy but at the same time totally not happy. "Maybe that's right. To leave Beacon... After all, I never belonged here, didn't I?"

She was shocked to say the least. The other seven students wanted to speak up and talk him out of that, but as seven small purple crystals fell from the ceiling onto their laps they were surprised to see words carved on them.

 _"Let him boil down. Talking to him now is only going to worsen the situation. Wait until after the viewing. Yours sincerely, Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh, the houseowner."_

They frowned, clearly not liking the order, but since the mysterious Writer had also been one of the two who had changed Neptune's hair and the one who owned the fortress they were, they decided not to go against it. Jaune relaxed on his couch, even if his face was still tense.

 **She then looked at Nora still holding her, she smiled warmly and returned the hug. "That sounds perfect."**

 **"Yeah! I finally get a sister!" They all shared a laugh after that.**

 **Shortly after that, they all got done getting ready for their first day and were making their way to the cafeteria. Jaune stopped when he heard what sounded like power tools coming from RWBY's dorm. His curiosity won out, "You guys go on. I need to check on something." They nodded and carried on. Jaune went to the door and knocked politely on said door. The sound stopped and a couple seconds later, the door was opened up by Ruby, who smiled warmly at him.**

"I wonder what they were doing," commented Ozpin, taking a calm sip from his coffee. Team RWBY laughed nervously.

 **"Hey Jaune, what's up?"**

 **"Not much. I heard a racket coming from your girl's room and was concerned. Everything okay?"**

 **She nodded, "Yup. We were just setting up our bunk beds." She said cheerfully.**

 **"Bunk beds?" She stepped aside so Jaune could see their handy work. He was not liking what he saw. Seeing the beds being held up by books and ropes was not a reassuring sight. "That can't be safe. Like at all."**

"Those are awesome!" shouted Sun.

"If you have a death wish," stated Jaune. Ruby, the one who came up with the idea, slumped down. Yang noticed and her eyes lit up, but she froze at Jaune's cold glare. "Yes, Xiao Long? Is anything the matter? Would you like to add the fortress of a mystical being to your list of trashed buildings, right after your house, a pub, and the school? If so, you're highly welcome."

The sheer amount of sarcasm stopped her dead in her tracks.

 **Yang quickly came into the conversation. "Nah, it's fine. They turned out awesome." She grinned.**

 **"Uh huh." Jaune was unconvinced. He looked back at the suspended bed. "Who is the unfortunate one sleeping under that?" he motioned to it.**

 **He heard an annoyed huff before Weiss spoke, "That would be me."**

 **He looked at her for a second before bowing his head. "It was an honor to know you." he said jokingly.**

"Not really," commented Jaune, making the heiress flinch. She looked like she was ready to protest, but he raised a golden eyebrow at her. "Don't waste your breath, Ice Queen, I've memorized all your insults, and I don't think you'll think of new ones."

"Mr Arc, this is enough!" exclaimed Goodwitch, her eyes narrowed. "There is no need for such an attitude..."

"Bullying is wrong but as soon as the big bad Arc starts stating the truth, everything changes?" he drawled heavily. "No thank you. I've been the nice guy who takes it all with a smile on his face for far too long. It's clear you've all forgotten I'm a person, not a machine, and a person usually does not appreciate being insulted, bullied or simply ignored."

"We didn't ignore you!" protested Ruby, her face looking ready to fall.

"And what about the others?" he asked quite frostily. In any other situation, Yang would've joked that Weiss was the Ice Queen and not him, but at the moment no one felt like joking. "Until you are ready to accept the fact that no, I do not have an unlimited amount of cheerfulness and patience, I suggest you to stay clear of me."

 **She just gave him a glare before she shouted, "Hey!"**

 **He smirked as he raised his head, "Than you'll really be a Snow Angel." She blushed and looked away with another huff. He chuckled a bit and so did Yang and Ruby. "But seriously, why don't you girls just request some actual bunk beds. I doubt Professor Ozpin would mind. Considering its that or these." he motioned to the beds again. No one said a thing. "You girls didn't think of that did you?" All four of them were avoiding his gaze. He started to laugh. "Anyways, my team is already heading to the cafeteria before class. Wanna tag along?" They all agreed and started to make their way there.**

 **About halfway there Yang grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. "Mind hanging back for a second?"**

"Frankly, I do," snarked Jaune, earning a glare from Yang. "What? Do you really think I would accept? Being alone with someone who frankly doesn't like me very much, is only friends with me because I'm her sister's first friend at Beacon, looks down on me because I'm not skilled, and even mocked my attempts of asking Weiss out with stuff like `One day` when you perfectly knew it wasn't and will never happen? No, thank you very little."

"Mr Arc," was the only thing Ozpin said. Jaune stiffened and looked at the Headmaster. "I believe that's enough."

 **He nodded, "Sure."**

 **Once the rest of her team was out of earshot she started to talk. She pulled her hair over shoulder and started playing with it. "I wanted to apologize to you, Jaune."**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow, "For what?"**

 **She was looking down now, "I asked you something I shouldn't have and made you bring up some painful memories. I shouldn't have done that and I feel really bad about it."**

 **Jaune just looked at her. "Yang, it's fine."**

 **"No, it's not!" she nearly yelled and looked up at him eyes red. "I can understand how you felt and I know how painful that can be. We felt the same when we lost…" Yang stopped and looked down again.**

"When we lost Summer, Ruby's mother and... well, actually _our_ mother even if she wasn't really mine," explained Yang as the others looked at her in confusion. Ruby had already mentioned it, but seeing Yang being affected by it was something else. Ruby herself looked down, eyes misting over as she recalled her mother. She was about to sniff and fight them back when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Looking up, she saw Jaune, no more coldness in his eyes but understanding. He sighed heavily. "My family is made up mainly of Huntsmen," he said. When she frowned in confusion, he explained. "Huntsmen don't always come back alive from their missions. That, and the fact that my family has always been large, made for quite the childhood filled with `uncle is dead` or `the Grimm got your cousin`. I know what you're feeling... my father died to the White Fang three years ago."

Blake looked down and clenched her fists, feeling worse than ever for once belonging to the White Fang. "How did he die?" she asked. She knew it wasn't something healthy to do, but she _needed_ to know. And cats had nothing to do about it.

Jaune's eyes narrowed. "The Faunus were protesting peacefully, the White Fang showed up and began firing on the crowd, calling them cowards for not joining the fight. When my father tried to fight back, some guy with a red katana, dressed in black and dark red, killed him. Called him a human lover and all that bullshit." His eyes were burning with barely repressed hatred and Aura. Blake was shaking. "And that man, is a dead man."

"Wait, human lover?" asked Weiss as Blake clenched her fists. _'Adam killed my friend's father,'_ she thought. _'He's... he's a monster...'_

"My father was a Fox Faunus," explained Jaune. "His first wife was a Swan Faunus... my mother. She died while on a mission. My second and third mothers alike were humans." When everyone gawked at him, he merely raised an eyebrow. "Did you really think that the Arcs had eight children with just two of them?"

Given their faces, they did. Jaune released Ruby's shoulder and walked back to his couch.

"Wait, so you're a Faunus freak?" asked Cardin, regaining his bearings first.

Jaune merely gave him the middle finger before tossing ten Lien to Ruby. "For the sweat jar."

 **Jaune reached over and rested her hand on her shoulder. Yang looked him in the eye and saw only forgiveness. "Yang, it's fine. I've had all that bottled up for a long time now. I refused to speak about it until yesterday. But talking helped me move forward, even if it's just a little bit. Made me remember that Amber wouldn't want me suffering like that. So if anything, I should thank you for helping me onto the right path. So, thank you, Yang" he gave her a warm smile.**

 **She just stared at him for a second before she gave him a grin, "Kinda hard to feel bad when you smile like that." He chuckled for a bit before she continued. "I know how you can thank me later though." She smirked.**

 **"I'm all ears." He was still smiling.**

 **"When you're ready to move on, you have to promise to give me a fair shot." she gave him a teasing smile as she said that.**

 **Jaune was stunned for a second and blushed before he grinned, "I would consider it an honor." Trying to return he teasing.**

 **She blushed slightly from his words and her realization that she was half serious about that. She quickly punched Jaune in the shoulder to divert attention. "Don't go falling for me yet, Hero." she teased.**

"Like the most popular girl in Beacon would ever fall for someone like Arc," snorted Neptune, remembering them of his presence. Predictably enough, a rock slammed into him.

"I would've liked to punch your face in," said Yang, her eyes red. Jaune being so cold to them was already enough without adding Neptune insulting him. Even if he was now detached from them, it didn't change the fact they considered him a friend. "But I didn't want to grease my hands."

 **"Ow! Oum Yang, that hurt." He was rubbing his arm trying to regain feeling in it.**

 **"Come on, you saying I hit harder than that Death Stalker or Beringel? Stop being a baby."**

 **"I'm not using my Semblance and I've seen what your punches can do. So, excuse me for not being indestructible." They met up with their teams and had their breakfast before they headed to their first class, Grimm Studies. Jaune was excited for this class. He'd been fighting Grimm for years with Ren and Nora. He wasn't an expert but he was looking forward to learning more about the creatures and probably doing fairly well from all his experiences so far.**

"He's in for a big bad surprise," all the students droned at the same time. Even Cardin had joined the chorus.

 **The excitement went away when Professor Port started to ramble on and on about himself. Jaune tried to pay attention and learn but it was a losing battle and he eventually started to tune out. He looked at his team to see how they were fairing. Nora was fully engrossed in the story but that made sense considering it was Nora. Ren was looking like he was paying attention but Jaune could tell he was meditating and focusing on his aura. Pyrrha was actually trying to take notes, had to give her credit for that. He then looked down to Team RWBY sitting in front of him. Yang was on her scroll, Blake looked like she was about to nod off, Weiss was paying attention and Ruby was just as bored as him. She was making a poor drawing of the Professor. He had to smile at her antics, although Weiss didn't agree with him on that. She looked like she was getting angrier by the second. He was worried until he tuned back into Professor Port's rambling.**

 **"A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"**

 **Weiss raised her hand and nearly shouted, "I do, sir!"**

 **"Excellent, Miss Schnee!" he boomed "Now usually I would take that as a volunteer but today I will call on someone who showed remarkable skill in slaying Grimm during initiation!"**

 **Weiss seemed deflated at that and everyone was curious who this someone was. Before Professor Port pointed directly to that person. "Are you ready, Mr. Arc!"**

 **Jaune jumped at that and everyone turned to look at him. "I guess, sir. But I'm not that skilled though." He tried to defuse this situation before it was too late.**

 **Professor Port merely laughed, "You show modesty, my boy! Not many first years can take out seven Beowolves along with an Alpha, figure out an ingenious plan for taking down a Death Stalker and then take down a Beringel, nearly single handedly!"**

 **At that point everyone was either staring at him or discussing what they heard with each other. Jaune promptly slammed his head on his desk and sighed tiredly. He muttered to himself, "Should've kept my big mouth shut." Jaune knew rumors would spread now and he was never one for the limelight. He called his aura to calm himself, causing his body to faintly glow white but only his team and RWBY noticed, before he stood up and looked at the professor with a determined look. "You got it, sir."**

"Aww, I wanted to see him smash that Boarbatusk!" whined Nora.

"We saw him fight enough times," said Ren, a hint of disapproval in his voice. "This is a world, Nora, not just a story."

For a few seconds, no one spoke.

Then Ruby broke the silence. "Jaune, I want to speak with you," she began, but Jaune held up a hand to stop her and glared at her, even if marginally less coldly than before. It was still enough to make her flinch as she remember that just ten minutes earlier the boy had been serene and friendly.

"Don't waste breath in apologizing or asking for an apology," he stated. "Actions speak far louder than words. Don't say you're sorry because that would be worth horse shit. Prove you are."

"How?" the small redhead begged. Pyrrha nodded earnestly, joining in in Ruby's attempt to get their friend back. All the seven students waited for his answer.

"Don't you listen to Goodwitch every time she lectures me about my lack of skill?" he laughed coldly. "You can't rely on others, despite them being your team. You have to find the way on your own. I'm not gonna tell you. Do you really want to prove that? Then you can spend a little time thinking about how to prove it. Otherwise, just don't waste effort and accept this."

Ruby sagged dejectedly. "I'll make it up to you, Jaune..."

 ** _Finally some plot! ;)_**

 ** _LordHellPhoenix is a great author and TES is a wonderful story, but let's be realistic: who would expect Jaune to sit still and smile while everyone cheers at his other self? No one. So now Jaune created a fracture. Let's be frank: Jaune is in the right at being irritated (because he's being forced to watch a better version than himself, and he already has esteem issues), but is definitely in the wrong at condemning the others._**

 ** _Where did that come out from, you must be wondering. Well, the thing about talking of advanced subjects is something that really happened to me, even if I was not in Jaune's place. Among my friends I'm by far the most knowledgeable, even if some of them know more than me in certain subjects, and my friends have developed a sense of... let's say awe. They think me all-knowing. But sometimes, when I'm speaking about something I'm passionate about, and I get carried away, my friends feel awkward because they can't keep up with my conversation. So, yeah, I know how it feels at being in RWBY+NPR place right now. It's shitty. I don't know for others but I myself hate hurting others. I'd rather carve my own flesh than hurt others. In a spar is different, of course, because the other wants to fight, and I'm not one to stand still while being attacked or robbed, but otherwise I don't like violence, both physical and psychological._**

 ** _And yes, Jaune is a Faunus. Props to the one who guess what kind. And please don't say rabbit because it's wrong._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	9. Chapter 8

**_Heya guys! Before we move on to the story, I've got something you should know. No, this story isn't going to become Trail of Blood Mark II. Phoenix and I agreed on a bit of darkness (okay, something more than a bit but you get what I mean), but we aren't planning on making this a horror fic or anything. The way Jaune snapped and is how acting is not the most pleasant, that's for sure, but it's not going to last forever. It's just to find a way to re-define his friendships with the others because in the show they don't show anything. So I took it upon myself to make him cut ties with them so I could write their friendship back up from that. Sorry if the previous chapter upset or annoyed you. I'm not some psychopath (not a diagnosed one, at least) who enjoys upsetting his readers or hurting his characters._**

 ** _Also, at the end of this chapter there will be the gifts from the users Phoenix Warehouse Productions and Alvelvnor. I know that the user Blake Tourdner `sent` gifts as well, but as I replied in PM Phoenix and I decided to set a few rules for the gifts. I planned on discussing them with Phoenix Warehouse Productions (Adrian from Remnants of Dimensions, by the way) because I thought only he would send gifts. The rules will be posted at the end of this chapter for clarity. Blake Tourdner, I'm sorry for not having added your gifts as well but you never replied my message, so I thought you'd just given up. Contact me again if you desire sending other gifts and I'll send them in the next chapter._**

 ** _That being said, here's your chapter._**

The group took a thirty minutes break after the last viewing. Jaune went back to the arena, not training but taking notes. The subjects of his notes varied, ranging from weapons and armours to mere clothes to fighting styles and even single techniques. He made a quick stop at the library and, even though he didn't find advanced training books or anything like that, he was satisfied to find several old books about combat, even if they contained very few useful tips.

The others were left alone in the Watching Hall. Ozpin, Qrow, Ironwood and Winter were playing chess -Ozpin against Ironwood- and poker -Qrow against Winter-, even if Qrow had suggested playing strip poker instead. Obviously, Winter had refused.

Cardin, Sun and Neptune, ironically found out that they went along pretty fine. Cardin still didn't like Sun's Faunus heritage but he found him to be kinda cool in his own way. Neptune, when he wasn't flirting, was actually a nice guy to be with, and Cardin himself wasn't all that bad outside of the bullism subject.

Goodwitch, instead, was with the seven students. They had been hit pretty hard by Jaune's snapping earlier and the stern professor decided it would've been better to talk with them about it, or at least talk to them.

"As I said, students, what happened with Mr Arc is not your fault," she stated at the seven moody students. "Mr Arc should've held his temper in check, not lashed out like that."

"But he was right," countered Blake, looking at her with an expression that simply screamed `deny what I just said`. "He was telling the truth... right, Professor?"

"No, he wasn't. Or at least, he was telling his own subjective truth and not the objective truth," replied the woman. After a very quick explanation about the difference between a subjective truth and an objective one, she continued. "You've all earned the skill you have through hard training and..."

"It wasn't all that hard," Yang pointed out. "I mean, come on. Beacon itself is actually _easier_ than a normal high school. We have time to have fun, the homework isn't all that bad, the grounds are huge and there are a bunch of entertaining stuff like the pool and the Beacon clubs… It's not like we're in the army. We had to work out, sure, but currently Jaune has been working out even harder than us. Pyrrha's the only one who has had an actually _harsh_ training."

"Yeah!" exclaimed Ruby. "I just trained with Uncle Qrow for two years and then I got moved up ahead of two years. But it's not like he worked me to the bone!"

"Ms Xiao Long, Ms Rose, training is not the only thing you have to take into consideration," sighed the Professor. _'I hate looking like the bad guy,'_ she thought. _'But it's not their fault. Mr Arc shouldn't have come to Beacon and expected to be on par with the students with his current combat skill level.'_ "You seven are prodigies. You have immense talent and I must say, despite the risk of this inflating your ego, that you might be able to defeat second or maybe even third year students. Mr Arc, on the other hand, is devoid of such talent. I fail to see any potential, skill or even _chance_ of improvement for him. He wasn't born to be a Huntsman. I saw how good at dancing he is: maybe he should drop out of Beacon and start a career as a dancer. He would probably earn even more money than as a Huntsman..."

"But he wants to be a Huntsman, not a dancer!" protested Pyrrha. "He's been improving a lot! How can you say he doesn't have potential! He learns faster than I've ever seen!"

"As fast as he might learn, it won't be enough," retorted Goodwitch. "He is clearly unfit for Beacon. He might be fit for Signal's second or even third year, but Beacon accepts only the trained and the best. I'm still appalled by the fact that Mr Arc has been able to pass Beacon's strict entrance exams, but this does not mean he is now fit for the Academy."

"Actually Glynda, Mr Arc did not pass the entrance exam," commented Ozpin as he took Ironwood's remaining knight, much to the cyborg man's despair and frustration. "His transcripts were fake, it was clear as day. As talented as he is in other fields, forgery is definitely a no for him."

Goodwitch's eye twitched, but she remained calm as she processed the new information. The students froze, with Cardin almost choking on the soda he had been drinking. "And why, Headmaster, was he allowed into the school, then?" she asked frostily.

"Ms Goodwitch, he passed initiation. When he arrived, he had no Aura, no training and a weapon that, frankly, I'm surprised survived the fall from the cliffs," replied the man, sternness creeping into his voice. "He showed great improvisation skills, incredible aptness for leadership and, most of all, an almost unheard-of-before amount of potential. He might have not been able to physically support his team, but the mere fact that he didn't get himself thrown off the temple's ruins, nor he tried to face the Deathstalker on his own, leaving it to his more skilled teammates, are all points in his favour, not against him. His peers have trained for five years to be able to pass the initiation. He survived it with no training at all, and barely a scratch."

"He's untrained!" exclaimed Goodwitch. "And, in case you forgot, forgery is a _crime!_ "

"It's also not even the worst crime we overlooked, Glynda," countered the elder man. "Should I remind you of Ms Xiao Long's visit to Hei Xiong's pub? What about Ms Belladonna?"

The woman opened her mouth to reply, but no sound came out of it. To tell the truth, she had to admit that property damage as well as thefts and the whole former terrorist thing weighed far more than just a forgery. Her eyes still narrowed, though. Maybe she was just holding a grudge, but one thing hadn't changed in her opinion. "He's still going to get himself killed," she stubbornly stated.

"Aren't we all?" was Ozpin's serene reply.

Almost as if to agree with the man, a small flame burst out in front of the woman, subsiding after a second to leave behind a small note. It read

 _"You shouldn't pass judgement on things you know very little about. Signed, Phoenix."_

Just like his previous messages, his symbol had been burnt into the paper after the signature, and the note was swiftly consumed by the flames yet again as soon as she read it. Goodwitch gritted her teeth, but stayed silent even as Jaune walked in twenty minutes later, freshly showered. He had found the showers near the arena he was training in, and thus he had taken the chance to grab a shower... not literally grab it, of course.

As they all returned to their seats, with Jaune still acting detached from the others, the screen lit up.

 **Jaune quickly went to get his gear and swords. On his way back, he was just focusing on what to do. 'Okay, everyone in class heard what I did, but they don't know for sure what I did. If I keep my Semblance on the low people won't know my full capabilities. Even though, I still don't know my full capabilities. I'm fine with my team and RWBY knowing but not everyone else. Keep the fancy moves to a minimal and I'll be fine.' Jaune finished his monologue has he was back in the center of the class getting ready.**

"He's hiding his true potential," noticed Jaune, noting something down on his notepad. "Clever, but it might make him look arrogant. Yet again, he's strong enough to hold back."

Meanwhile, Cardin had recovered from the shock and looked at the others, incredulous. "You mean you're just gonna let him stay in Beacon with his forgery?!" he exclaimed. "B-But… he's a fake! A cheater! A _criminal!_ "

"Mr Winchester, this school is not for the trained," said Ozpin. "It's useless to train who is already trained. We train who needs training. That's what schools are for. Mr Arc needed and still needs training, and we are providing it."

Had Cardin had Yang's Semblance, his eyes would be crimson red. "And you?!" he shouted at the seven. "Are you just gonna accept this… this… this faker?!"

The seven blinked before Ruby replied. "Cardin… we already knew of his transcripts, you know that, right?"

Cardin bashed his head against the couch. Not like he could hurt himself with that, though.

 **"Are you ready, Mr. Arc?!" Professor Port said and Jaune nodded in response. "Well than step forward and face your opponent." He gestured to the cage. Jaune got in his stance but before he drew his sword he heard his friends.**

 **"Show them what you got, Fearless Leader!" Nora shouted.**

 **"Kick some butt, Hero!" Yang joined in.**

 **"Yeah, show what the Leader of Team JNPR can do!" Ruby added.**

 **Jaune smiled at them before Weiss hissed at her. "Ruby, you're distracting him!"**

"You _were_ kinda antagonistic toward Ruby at first," nodded Ren. "I guess that didn't change."

"Yeah, she was a frigid bitch," laughed Cardin before yet another rock slammed into him. "Is this going to become a recurrent theme?!"

"Probably," nodded the thrower of the rock, Jaune. "And on a side note, you're not allowed to insult her. Any of them, for all that matters."

Weiss blushed very slightly before huffing lightly. "So you do care," she murmured with a bit of reproach in her voice.

"I came to Beacon to learn how to protect others, no matter my opinion of them," replied Jaune. "I might not be on the best terms with you at the moment, but it's not like I hate you."

 **She looked down sheepishly, 'What's up with that?' he thought before he shelved the thought for later and he applied pressure with his right index finger, drawing Suikiri in a fluid motion as his eyes shifted to the slightly darker blue.**

 **"Alright! Let the match begin!" Port shouted before he slammed his axe onto the lock and releasing the Boarbatusk. It charged at Jaune immediately, after his shock Jaune was able to sidestep at the last minute and slash across the side of it.**

"It makes sense for him to use his speed and reflexes since this sword and element, Suikiri for Water, lowers his physical strength," nodded Winter. "At the same time, he also avoids the spotlight by using his weakest sword."

"Prick," grumbled Cardin. For once not referring to Jaune but to Winter.

 **"Ha-Ha, quick on your feet we see!"**

 **Jaune quickly charged at it as water enveloped the blade and was planning to release a pressurized shot at close range. Ruby was cheering again and Weiss was continuing to shush her. Jaune caught that in the corner of his eye and glanced over. That was a mistake, with him distracted he got his sword stuck in the Boarbatusk's tusk. He started to struggle but his strength was way below his normal levels by having his aura mixed with water. Without much choice, he angled his blade to the ground and shot the water. The water explosion sent the Boarbatusk flying but with his sword still stuck.**

 **"Oh, now what will you do without your weapon?" Jaune was about to draw Raikiri to electrocute the already soaked Grimm.**

"Strange how it's going almost exactly like it went with Weiss's fight," noted Blake, raising an eyebrow. "Especially the disarming and the fact that Weiss is pissed at Ruby."

"Well, maybe this time it'll be better?" offered Nora. "Since Ruby won't be speaking to Weiss but to Jaune, Weiss won't be angry at her?"

"Improbable," deadpanned Yang. "I mean, Weiss is Weiss."

"What does that mean?!" exclaimed the heiress.

"The sun is light, the sky is vivid~" sang Yang. "My hair's bright, and Weiss is livid~"

The joke earned a few chuckles even as Weiss glared at the blonde brawler.

 **"Jaune! Its belly!" Ruby shouted.**

 **"Ruby! Enough!" Weiss shouted back.**

 **Jaune looked over again. 'What the hell is up with Weiss?' he thought and saw the Boarbatusk already halfway to him. "Enough of this!" Jaune shouted in frustration of the fight and whatever was going on with Ruby and Weiss. He slammed his fist on the ground and as the Boarbatusk was over the puddle he made with Suikiri, the water pressurized again and shot up into the belly of the beast. The shot had so much force behind it, the Grimm was lifted off the ground before it tore completely through it. Suikiri came free and stuck into the floor. Jaune sighed and picked up Suikiri before sheathing it. He looked to see everyone shocked at what he did, besides Nora and Ren. He sighed again. 'Not the flashiest thing I've done but still over the top.'**

"Wow," said Ruby, partly in awe at the move and partly happy he had actually followed her counsel. She blew Weiss a victorious raspberry. The heiress could only sigh at her childish antics.

Jaune cocked his head on the right before nodding and writing something down on his notes.

 **Jaune was then smacked on the back by Port with him laughing, "Well done, my boy! You're just as deadly without your weapon." He smiled at him**

 **Jaune bowed his head slightly, "Thank you, Professor."**

 **He then turned to the rest of the class, "With that class is dismissed! Enjoy the rest of your day. Mr. Arc, can you stay back for a minute?"**

 **Jaune nodded again before he looked to his team and signaled them to go on without him. As they did, Jaune turned back to the Professor sitting at his desk. "Now, Mr. Arc, I've seen what you can do and this latest fight of yours has me curious. Why did you not use the sword that allows you to move at a heightened speed? You could've easily finished that Grimm."**

"As apparently inattentive as Port might come across as, he still is a quite capable Huntsman," said Ozpin. "He might not be the best teacher, but his heart is in the right place, and he knows when to be serious."

"So it would seem," mumbled Blake, still shocked by the Professor's insight.

Of all the students, Weiss was the only one who didn't look shocked. "He showed similar insight with me as well," she nodded.

 **Jaune sighed before he scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, Professor, I don't like being in the limelight. I wanna be a Huntsman to help people but the fame is something I just don't care about. If I were to show off my abilities to everyone then they would either gush over me or see me as someone to win against. I'm fine with my team and Team RWBY knowing but I'd prefer if everyone else had as little info on me as possible right now. That's why I went for my…. 'weakest' sword."**

 **Professor Port nodded his head slightly, "I see your reasoning and respect it. I would like to offer my apologies for forcing you to demonstrate your abilities without knowing your stance on things."**

"I wasn't expecting this," frowned Sun. "You guys talk about Port... well, not in the best way..."

"He hides more than you can guess by just hearing him talk like that," stated Ozpin, hiding his little smirk behind his mug.

 **Jaune had his hands up and was shaking his head, "No, no, its fine, sir. I play things close to my chest so you had no way of knowing."**

 **"Alright, then. Why don't you go on with your day?"**

 **"Thank you, sir." Jaune gathered his things and went to go meet the rest of his team. As he was walking he heard what sounded like people arguing and was about to give them privacy, until he recognized one of the voices.**

 **"You've done nothing to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child and you've continued to do so!" Weiss shouted at someone and when he heard the second person, he started to get angry.**

"Did that really happened?" asked Yang, hints of red in her eyes.

"It actually did," nodded Weiss. "And I think it's what made Ruby focus more on her studies."

"Yeah, but you sound way over the top in that," noted Sun, pointing at the screen.

 **"Weiss, where is this coming from? What happened to all the talk about 'working together'? I thought you believed in acting as a team." Said Ruby very sadly.**

 **"Not a team led by you. I've studied and trained. And quite frankly, I deserve better." There was a pause and Jaune came around the corner to put Weiss in her place for hurting Ruby. Until he saw Weiss had her back to Ruby with her reaching her hand to her. "Ozpin made a mistake." Ruby dropped her hand and started shaking slightly as Weiss walked away. Jaune walked over to Ruby and wrapped an arm around Ruby in a sideways hug. She looked up at him and she looked like she was about to cry.**

Yang looked just about ready to punch Weiss's face in and give her such a scar that her current one would look like a soft caress from a loving hand. The heiress, well aware of the extreme danger was was currently in, inched backwards, trying to put as much space as possible between herself and the blonde brawler.

"Jeez, she was really a frigid bitch," commented Sun.

Neptune sighed. "She _really was_ a frigid bitch, not she _was really_ a frigid bitch," he corrected.

"Hey, it's not wrong to say that!" protested Sun.

"It's wrong when you mean that she actually was a bitch, and that was what you meant. It's advised against when you mean that she was a real bitch, but not wrong," conceded Neptune. "And you meant the first."

"Nerd."

"Intellectual, actually."

"Well, Weiss isn't completely wrong," piped up Ruby. "She was harsh but it's thanks to her… and Professor Ozpin… that I began taking my studies more seriously…"

 **"Is she right? Did Ozpin make a mistake?" she asked in a shaky voice.**

 **Jaune pulled her closer to comfort her. "No, Ruby. He didn't."**

 **She started to look down, "How do you know?"**

 **"Let me ask you this. Did Ozpin make a mistake making me a leader?"**

 **She looked up at him in shock. "No, of course not! Jaune, your strong, smart and brave! You're a great leader!"**

"That's not what a leader is," was Jaune's cold remark.

Ruby flinched a little. He had begun to slightly warm up to them again, or at least stopped being antagonistic, but now he seemed back to his previous phase of coldness. "W-What makes you say t-that?" she asked, a little worried that she might've asked a question she didn't want to know the answer of.

"A leader can have those traits, of course," he added, easing her worries a little. "But a leader, to be honest, should be a person the others can trust. One they can turn to when they are in trouble. One who will listen to them and be listened to by them. A leader must have the charisma needed to interact with his comrades, the humility to stand among his companions instead of above them, the sharpness of a sword and the quickest of minds. A leader isn't the head of the spear. A leader is the brain that moves it."

There was a second of silence. Then…

"Meh, you're saying that just because you're so pathetically weak you would never be able to be the spear's head," laughed Cardin. "A leader must be the strongest of his team, and he must be someone others respect for his strength. Not some small fry who barely knows what a spear is."

Seven students glared at Cardin, but Jaune smirked, and there was nothing pleasant nor kind in that smirk. "All that strength of yours did a lot against the Ursa, didn't it?" he asked sarcastically.

"Said the one who needed his teammate's help to defeat it, or would've been killed," drawled Cardin, gesturing to Pyrrha. "Didn't you say Nikos helped you with the Ursa?"

"Well, I think I've been a better leader than you, if my teammate actually helped me instead of running away like chickens," retorted Jaune, and there were a few chuckles among the seven students as well as Sun and Neptune. Cardin scowled but he couldn't deny the truth: his teammates had indeed ran before a mere Ursa. They also had their head chewed off after Cardin got back.

 **Jaune chuckled a little. "Thank you, Ruby. But if that's true than you're also a great leader because you have those exact qualities." She looked at him in shock. "The way you use Crescent Rose to the proficiency you do shows just how much you've trained and how strong you are. You came up with a strategy just as good as anything I could to deal with that Nevermore. And finally, you stepped in to save me from that Beringel without a second of hesitation. Ruby, if that doesn't prove that you are a great leader or have the potential of a great leader, then what does?"**

 **She looked down with a small smile before she started to hug Jaune back, "So, why doesn't Weiss see it that way." She asked sadly.**

 **"I don't know, Ruby. Maybe she's just jealous or it's something else." Ruby was still looking down. He got an idea and gently bumped her to get her attention. When she looked up, he was smiling. "Why don't you prove her wrong? She thinks you're not good enough to be leader, well why don't you show her just how great of a leader you can be."**

"That's more or less what Professor Ozpin told me," noted Ruby, raising an eyebrow. "Why isn't he there?"

"Maybe my other self saw the Swordsman giving Ms Rose a pep talk, and decided not to step in," replied the man. "I prefer to allow students to help each other out instead of solving things myself."

"Quick question, though," said Nora. "Why are we all calling the other Jaune `the Swordsman`?"

Ozpin hummed in thought. "Well, he's person we're seeing the most in this universe, and since `Jaune` and `Mr Arc` alike have already been taken by our own Jaune Arc, we call him by his fighting style," he explained. "Does this clear your mind?"

"Hey, I've got an idea!" exclaimed Sun. "Since we're all out of school right now, why don't we call each other by first name, and use our surnames when we want are speaking about our other selves?"

"It could get messy," noted Weiss before nodding. "But it's not a completely bad idea."

"I'm fine with that," shrugged Yang. "Besides, if we don't like it we can just drop it and return to saying `our other selves`. Still, I'd vote for continuing to call the other Jaune `the Swordsman`. It's not just cool, but for some reason it sounds… right."

"I've noticed that as well," agreed Ren. "It sounds as if it's his real title, like `Professor` Ozpin or `General` Ironwood."

"It's not just a title," nodded Pyrrha. "I vote to keep calling him the Swordsman."

 **She stared at him wide eyed, he could see she was considering it before she lowered her head again. "What if I can't?"**

 **Jaune gently placed his fingers below her chin and raised her head to look at him in the eyes. "You can. And you got Blake and Yang to support you the entire way. Along with me." He smiled brightly at her.**

 **It took a second before she smiled back. "I'll do it! Thank you, Jaune, I needed that."**

 **"No problem. A very smart person told me that's what friends do."**

 **She blushed at the off handed compliment and the two started to laugh. "But seriously, Ruby, I'm here for you. If the whole leader role gets to be too much, come to me. We're kinda in the same boat."**

 **She nodded and gave him another hug before she stepped back. "Same goes for you, Jaune." He answered with a nod and his smile. She smiled back and turned away slightly with a blush. "For a second there, I thought you were going to kiss me."**

Yang choked on her soda while Ruby blushed red. Jaune merely raised an eyebrow. "Vomi… Jaune, what the hell are you making my sister think!?" exclaimed the blonde between coughs.

"I'm wondering the exact same thing," replied the blond, his eyebrow turning from surprised to sarcastically questioning.

"Well, they did look into each other's eyes for a short while. Plus they were basically into each other's arms and they were smiling at each other," listed Blake. "It does not warrant for a kiss to happen, but it does have some chances for a make-out. Plus Ruby was felling gratitude and both were feeling positive emotions."

"Blake," said Yang, catching the Faunus's attention. "Shut up."

 **"Are you disappointed?" He smirked at her. Ruby looked at him and realized he was pulling a Yang. She gave him a glare. "Of course not, I know you wouldn't do that." She than added very quietly, "Too bad though."**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow, "So you have me figured out already?"**

 **She looked at him, "Yup!"**

 **"Really?" Jaune decided to prove her wrong. He put his fingers under her chin and raised her head. And when she was looking into his eyes he gently kissed her on the forehead. When he pulled back, her eyes were wide and she was blushing. Jaune gave a small laugh. "Can't let you figure me out completely." He smiled at her and she was still stunned. "I'll see you later, Ruby. Got something to do." He slowly walked away to find a certain heiress as Ruby was trying to figure out what just happened.**

Yang's eyes had turned back to violet the second the Swordsman had gone for the forehead instead of the lips. "Oh, so it was just a peck on the forehead…" she said, sighing in relief. "I thought I would see my baby sister's innocence being taken away…"

"Just so you know, Yang, `innocence` as you're using it means `virginity`," remarked Jaune. "Last time I checked a kiss does not take away maidenhood."

"Last time you checked?" smirked Blake. "You mean last time you kissed a girl or last time you took someone's virginity?"

Jaune sighed as the others shared a very quick laugh. "I guess I asked for that," he mumbled. Even after he widened the distance between himself and the others, he had to admit that sometimes he just asked to be proven dumb.

* * *

 **Jaune looked everywhere for Weiss, he eventually found her on a balcony staring out at the sunset. He made his way over to her and she turned to see who it was before she turned back. He stood beside her watching the sunset until Weiss spoke, "What do you want?"**

 **"To talk. Especially about your attitude to a friend of mine." Jaune said with a slight edge.**

 **She looked at him in disbelief, "You were eavesdropping?!"**

"It's not eavesdropping. It's just not being deaf," noted Blake, raising an eyebrow. "You weren't exactly being quiet."

"Oh, shut up," huffed Weiss, an embarrassed blush on her cheeks.

 **"It's not eavesdropping when you're shouting loud enough to be heard down the hall." She scoffed at that and turned back to the sunset. "You were completely out of line."**

 **She whirled around on him, "Excuse me?!"**

 **He looked at her with a stare. "You. Were. Out. Of. Line." He said slowly, "Understand it that time?"**

"I hope you do realize, Weiss, that your position is hardly a defendable one," noted Ren. "You're in the wrong and stomping your feet isn't going to change things."

"Even though you might be right when you said you should've been made team leader," added Ironwood, glancing at Ozpin with heavy disapproval. "A single moment, even if an emergency, is not proof of one's leadership skills. As far as I've seen, neither Ms Rose nor Mr Arc nor Mr Winchester are effective leaders. Ms Schnee and Ms Nikos would've made for frankly better ones."

"James, this is not Atlas: we don't test our students like soldiers," said Ozpin. "Plus I think you're wrong. Team RWBY turned to Ms Rose during an emergency, as did Team JNPR with Mr Arc. You turn to your leader when you're in trouble… not to the nearest person."

Ruby, having slumped down at Ironwood's words, perked up again. "So I'm a good leader?" she asked.

"You have the potential to be one," replied Ozpin. "Only time will be able to tell if you will or not."

 **"How dare you!" she shouted.**

 **"How dare I? What about you?! You told Ruby she has done nothing to earn he role as leader! I think coming up with a strategy to take out that Nevermore and risking her life to save mine are two things! And it's been ONE day since teams were formed, a bit early to judge anyone!"**

 **Weiss was taken back by Jaune's sudden anger but she quickly tried to fight back, "She shouldn't even be here! She's only fifteen!"**

 **"That just shows how skilled she is! But you don't wanna see or accept that fact! Get over yourself!"**

"I am disappointed to see your despicable behaviour, Weiss," snapped Winter, crossing her arms on her chest. Weiss looked down before a voice spoke up.

"Well, with a sister like you, it's not hard to see why Weiss was such an Ice Queen back at the start of the year," scoffed Jaune, crossing his arms to match Winter's position. "You are disappointed, huh? Who gave you the _right_ to be _disappointed_ at her? Nobody. It's her life. Who cares if you disagree with her actions or her thoughts?"

"Her words were unwise and unfit for…" began Winter, anger rising in her voice, but Jaune cut her off with a bored look.

"Yes, yes, yes, and that comes from Perfection Incarnate," he drawled. "Well, maybe she wouldn't have been so angry at not being made the leader hadn't she had a sister who dared be _disappointed_ in her for what she did or did not do."

"That was improper behaviour," hissed Winter as the students stared at them in shock, no one more than Weiss herself. Jaune raised an eyebrow, not giving any ground. "She shouldn't have acted like that."

"And pray tell, who decides how Weiss should or shouldn't act?" asked Jaune. " _You?_ "

"It's inadmissible for a young woman like her to act like that!" Winter exclaimed. Qrow snickered at seeing the Schnee starting to lose her temper, knowing fully well that the woman's patient was about as strong as his self-control when it came to alcohol.

"Inadmissible, uh? But who decides what is inadmissible?" continued the blond boy, standing up with a dark look on his face. "Pray tell, who decides? Is it for a Faunus inadmissible to love a human? Is it inadmissible to refuse being part of the White Fang?"

Taken aback by his change of topic, Winter frowned. "Of course it isn't," she retorted. "How does this…"

"Then, pray tell, why did Adam Taurus of the White Fang say these exacts words, `It is inadmissible for a Faunus to love a lowly human`," he said before pointing to his back. "As he sawed off my wings?"

A shocked silence fell on the room. Sun was horrified by that, but Blake was positively devastated to know that her former love had been inhuman enough to do such a thing. Touching a Faunus's traits without permission was highly frowned upon and in Menagerie even illegal. Cutting them off was something no one even dared to speak about.

The others weren't far behind, though. They might've not been Faunus but they were still shocked by the news. Cardin himself was partly green and partly white. Pyrrha and Ruby alike had teary and absolutely horrified looks on their faces. Nora had been shocked into silence and for once even Ren's expressionless facade had broken, showing the horror in his eyes. Weiss had a hand over mouth, trying to find words but only managing to find tears.

The adults had different reactions. Qrow spat out his alcohol, even the seasoned Huntsman shocked by such a cruel action, especially done by the White Fang to a Faunus. Ozpin's eyes widened and his mug almost fell from his hands as the Headmaster's brain reconsidered a lot of things. Ironwood was disgusted by the idea of someone doing something like that, even if he unfortunately did expect the White Fang to act inhumanly. Goodwitch was, similar to Weiss, trying to find words, to fix the shattered illusion she had of the boy.

Winter was the one who was hit harder. Her face drained of all colour and she stammered something that could've been an apology as well as an `I'm sorry`. Her hands were trembling as she sat back down.

Jaune's eyes remained hard. "Was he right? I don't think so. But yet again, who decides what is admissible and what isn't?" he continued mercilessly. "Was it admissible for a Faunus to love a human? I think so. Is it admissible for Weiss to be a human being and not the perfect frigid lady? I think so as well. She's a person. How dare you even _think_ of being disappointed in her. You don't get to decide what is right and what is wrong for her. She does."

"J-Jaune…" began Blake, her eyes wide. Jaune whirled on her in a second.

"What, Blake?" he snapped. "Is it pity? No thanks. It's been three years. That's far too long to still accept pity. And personally, I've lost something, or rather someone, far more important than just flesh and feathers that day." The others wanted to say more, but the look Jaune gave them stopped them. It was a look that meant `I'm not taking any of your shit`. It was a look that meant he didn't want them to `comfort` him, and it meant he would've highly preferred to be left alone for the moment.

A few minutes earlier, Jaune had begun to warm up to them again. Now, the atmosphere was tenser than ever.

 **Weiss scoffed, "Who are you to judge me, huh!? You think you're somehow better than the rest of us!? Well, let me tell you…" she stopped as she felt a pressure all around her and looked to see Jaune's aura acting up, looking like a white inferno around him.**

 **He gave her an even glare before his aura calmed down. "I think my breakdown yesterday proved I'm nowhere close to being better than anyone." He said quietly before looking back at the sunset.**

 **Weiss realized she crossed a line and looked down. She slowly turned to the sunset and the two of them were in silence before she got the courage to speak again in a weak voice. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."**

 **Without turning to her, he nodded. "It's fine. I said a few things I shouldn't've either."**

 **They were in silence again before she sighed, "You probably won't like to hear this or agree with me. But I feel like I should be leader."**

 **The silence stretched for a minute before Jaune spoke again. "You don't want the responsibility." She looked at him in confusion as he continued. "Circumstances happened. Ren, Nora and I had to figure things out on our own. Even with my teacher around, those two always looked to me as a leader. Their wellbeing, their safety. They were everything I thought about. The overwhelming pressure that comes with that mantle is painful." He finally turned back to Weiss. "It can break most people."**

"It does break most people," sighed Ironwood, recalling his former team.

 **"Then why would Ozpin pick Ruby? Why not someone more prepared and ready?" she asked confused.**

 **Jaune chuckled slightly. "I asked my teacher something similar. She told me, 'A good leader knows how to lead on their own. But a great leader knows how to lead with their followers.'" Weiss looked confused. "A good leader will eventually break. But a great leader will rely on the people that follow them. They will listen to their advice, accept their help and learn along with them. That forms a bond that helps all involved." He looked back at the sunset. "At least that's what I believe." Weiss was again shocked and said nothing. "Ruby is gonna lead her team but she will need her team to help move forward. You'll need to lean on each other to be the best team possible."**

"That's what Dad always says too," said Ruby in a small and soft voice, not daring to actually break the silence that had been weighing on the group ever since Jaune's revelation.

"That's what Dad said too," replied Jaune in a just as small voice. His voice held no sorrow or pain, just a heartbreaking amount of nostalgia. Blake's eyes, already misty, became heavy with guilty tears.

 _'If only he hadn't gone down that path…'_

 **Weiss finally gained her voice, "You believe that? Honestly?" She said it not with a condescending tone but one of pure curiosity.**

 **Jaune nodded. "That's why my teamwork with Nora and Ren is so good. We rely and trust in each other. And because of that, my team is my family." He turned back to Weiss. "You may not be the leader but your team will need you all the same." He gave her a small smile before he started to walk away.**

 **When he was almost inside she asked him a question. "Why are you doing it? What do you get out of this?"**

 **Jaune thought for a second and responded genuinely, "Nothing. My friends were hurting and I wanted to help them."**

 **"We're friends?" she asked in shock.**

"He doesn't mean friends as in `best friends forever` or `I would trust my entire family's lives to you`," said Ren. "But more as acquaintances, acquaintances on a fast track to become friends."

"Yeah, that's usually _Xiao_ you make friends," Yang tried to joke, but no one laughed.

 **"I like to think so, but if you don't that's fine. I know I can be a bit…much." He joked**

 **She gave him a small smile, "You can but that's not bad." She looked down before looking back at him. "Thank you, Jaune."**

 **He smiled, "Anytime, Snow Angel." With that he started to return to his dorm. Before that, he decided to stop by the kitchens to make something special for a certain red reaper. When he made it to his dorm room, he knocked on Team RWBY's door. After a minute Yang answered it, dressed in her pajamas. "Hey, Yang, is Ruby here?"**

 **She nodded before saying, "Yup but she's not accepting visitors." Jaune gave a confused look and Yang jerked her thumb to the suspended bed. "She's been in her bed studying since she got back. Don't know what's gotten into her."**

 **Jaune gave a knowing smile before he continued, "Okay. Well, can you give this to her. She was down earlier and thought this would help." He held up a paper bag and was about to hand it to Yang when a flurry of rose petals snagged it from him. Standing between them was Ruby looking into the bag.**

 **"Cookies!" she shouted in joy.**

"Really?" said Qrow. "You finally start studying and a single bag of cookies is enough to tear you away from the books?"

"Oh, shut up, old drunkard," grumbled Goodwitch. "I still remember the _few_ missions you failed to show up for because you were drunk out of your mind."

"That was one time!"

"That was six times."

 **Jaune smiled at her. "Yup. Two dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies. Thought you could use them."**

 **"Thank you." She took one out and bit into it. She froze instantly. They both stared at her and Yang waved her hand in front of her face. "You made these, Jaune?"**

 **"Um, yes? Why, did I screw them up?" he asked nervously.**

 **She slowly shook her head while staring at him. "These are the best cookies ever!"**

"Long may Jaune's Cookies live," Ruby intoned, trying to lighten the atmosphere. No one laughed.

A single bag of cookies fell on her lap, reward for the effort, and she happily dug into it.

 **Jaune chuckled, "Good to hear. I'll make more for you if you'd like."**

 **Before he could figure out what was happening, Ruby had jumped onto him and tightly wrapped her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, "Please do! They're so good!" Jaune just nodded after he recovered from his shock. Ruby then tightened her grip and buried her head into his neck while shouting. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"**

 **Yang chimed in with that, "Ruby, you may wanna let go. Jaune needs air."**

 **Ruby looked at Jaune and he was blue and about to tip over. She dropped to the floor and held onto his hands so he didn't fall over. "I'm so sorry!"**

 **"It's fine, Ruby. Nora has done it before." He smiled and Ruby returned it. She than remembered what had happened earlier and blushed before she disappeared in her room again.**

 **Yang looked at Ruby on her bed then back at Jaune. "What's that about?" she asked.**

 **Jaune just shrugged and wished her a good night before going to his dorm to call it a night. His last thought before falling asleep was hoping those two would be alright now.**

"That was quite the intense viewing," commented Ironwood as the screen cut to black. "Not for the actual shown content of the world but for… other subjects, closer to home."

His words seemed to echo in the room as the silence stretched uncomfortably. Jaune was busy writing something down on his notepad, likely not even noticing the tense atmosphere around him. The adults were watching warily, as if he was a bomb ticking down quickly. Neptune and Cardin looked at him with a mix of horror and disgust. Sun was clutching his own tail in phantom pain. Six students were sitting unmoving on their couches, their eyes everywhere but on the blond boy who was being so cold to them.

One student had had enough.

Using her Semblance, Ruby shot over to Jaune _and_ over Jaune, toppling the couch over and sending the two of them tumbling to the ground. Jaune landed on his back, and not even an eleventh of seconds later a hundred or so pounds of Ruby landed on his stomach. He was about to push her off himself when her arms hooked around him and hugged him tightly. He stiffened when her hands moved up his back and stopped at his shoulder blades, where his wings used to be. Almost expecting her to try and touch the scars, he was instead surprised when she buried her face into his hoodie, the armour not covering enough to prevent her from doing that, and began to sob. "I'm s-s-so so-sorry," was the only thing he managed to understand from her continuous mumbling.

Jaune frowned before sighing and giving up trying to detach the his new red ornament from his chest. "It's been three years, Ruby," he said. "Three years. It's in the past now."

"Have you gotten used to it?"

"Uh?" said Jaune, looking up at Blake. "What?"

"Have you gotten used to it?" repeated the raven-haired girl. "To not having your Faunus traits… any more."

Jaune's eyes narrowed. "No."

Blake seemed to wilt even further at his answer and returned to her couch, sitting down with a downtrodden expression. Even as Jaune grudgingly returned to write on his notes, with Ruby attached to his torso like a second chestplate, the others seemed not to be able to find the right words. Nor any words at all, for all that mattered.

Thankfully, a distract… _something_ happened to take their minds off the problem at hand.

Now mildly used to freaky godlike powers, they merely yelped as a swirling portal of a curious but pleasant lapis-lazuli colour opened in the middle of the room before a box was gently laid on the floor, seemingly by no one. As the portal closed, everyone but one did what common sense told them.

Not to touch the box.

Unfortunately, Nora didn't even know the meaning of common sense, sometimes.

She ran at the box and opened it, cutely tilting her head sideways when a scroll of ancient-looking parchment unveiled from the box and floated up until it was at the same height as her face. Nora frowned before reading the paper. After the first few sentences, her smile returned and she turned to the others. "It's for us! I'll read it," she said before dramatically coughing to clear her throat. "Ehm-Ehm…"

"Dear Watchers, my name is Adrian Midnight-Phoenix, CEO of the Phoenix Warehouse Productions. You don't know me, but I do know you, or at least know _of_ you. You caught my eye and I like your personalities, so I decided to give you a few humble presents. The two Writers watching over you, Khor and Phoenix, have agreed to allow me to send you this box of gifts. I hope you will enjoy them. Nora, since I know you are currently reading this letter, the instructions are clear: there is a list of gifts on the other face of this parchment. Reading a gift aloud will make it appear. Yours sincerely, Adrian Midnight-Phoenix, CEO of the Phoenix Warehouse Productions, Immortal World Walker, Uncle of Heroes, Father of a Villain, Former Beacon graduate, Former Schnee Mining Employee and Founding Member of the White Fang."

A few murmurs were already starting when Nora continued.

"PS: the universe I come from is not your own. As far as I am aware, checking the records for my name will yield no results."

And that shut the whispers up.

Despite the admittedly weird situation, Nora continued to smile, quickly turning the parchment over and eyeing the gifts. "Very well… Professor Ozpin, step forwards, please." Deciding to humour her, the elder man walked up to the Valkyrie, who surprised him by drawing a large Thermos from the box. "To Medeis Ozpin, four mugs' worth of a very special brew," said Nora, handing him the Thermos. All it took for the man was one sip before his eyes narrowed and he shielded the coffee from sight.

"Mine. This is my _preciousss_ ," he said in a somewhat hissing voice.

Everyone was shocked by the sudden change in the usually unflappable Professor's demeanour, but Nora carried on as if nothing had happened. After all, Nora was Nora. She drew a flowing purple cloak and something not dissimilar to a Lien card of high value. "To Glynda Goodwitch, a new cloak and a gift card of the value of 5,000 Lien for Vale's best clothing store. Side note: change your clothes, Glyn, you look like a Dominatrix."

Many a Watcher burst into laughters. Qrow being the loudest, but the students being not too far behind. Everyone in the room had, at some point of their life, thought that exact same thing about Goodwitch's choice of clothes. She took the gifts with a fierce blush on her cheeks and a mumbled thanks.

"To James Ironwood, a picture of his old team… oh my gosh Ironwood looked so cute at graduation!" Nora interrupted the `ceremony` to start gushing over Ironwood's younger self, much to the embarrassment of the General. He snatched the several pictures from her hands and froze. "Oh, it also says that the other pictures are blackmail pictures of Qrow."

An evil grin spread on Ironwood's face. Qrow began to shake a bit.

"Instead, for you Qrow Branwen, he's giving blackmail pics of someone called Rav-" Nora was cut off as wind hit her, the pictures previously in her hands now nowhere to be seen. Or rather, safe inside Qrow's pocket. His smirk was telling enough. "-en… Who's Raven?"

"My dear sister," he smiled. It reminded them of Ironwood's smile.

"Then there's Winter Schnee, who gets a book called `The Ancient Records of the Hundred Years War Between Vale and Mistral`, a rewrite of the famous records of the war written by Jeanne d'Arc… hey, Jaune, isn't she your ancestor?"

"The first Arc ever," he nodded. "And she was a Faunus."

"What kind?" asked Yang, surprised.

"It's unknown. We only know she was."

"And… Ehm… for Cardin there's a… boot to the head?" said Nora, not really sure to be readying it right. Instantly, an old and heavy cowboy boot shot out of the box and rocketed toward the boy, smacking him square on the forehead before disappearing back into the box. He groaned in pain as he rubbed his forehead. Nora shrugged and went on. It was fun.

"Neptune's gonna get more oil in hair and clothes," she stated as the boy groaned. His clothes visibly darkened as they were soaked in oil.

"Oh, come on!" he wailed. "It's unbearable to be covered in oil!"

"Your problem," replied Nora, sticking out her tongue at him. "As for Sun, there's a backscratcher made appositely for your tail, so that you can scratch your back without using your weapon."

The monkey Faunus took the tool with a smile, happy that finally all his back itches would disappear. Just like everyone else in the room, except the couple of students who were flexible enough to reach anywhere on their backs without help, he knew that back itches were worse than the Grimm.

"And finally here we are! Ruby Rose, a new outfit!" she declaimed happily, handing the clothes to the girl. And when the girl stared doubtfully at the chest part of the shirt and corset, Nora finished the note. "Side note: you will fill it out with time. It won't be long." **(Khor's note: it's V4 outfit)**

Weiss silently fumed in anger as Ruby perked up again.

"As for Weiss there's a book on law, so that you can finally stop your teammates from getting into crazy situations," stated the ginger bomber, burdening Weiss with a heavy tome. "Plus a photo of you and Winter on a Vacuan beach, far far far away from your father. Also, there are Faunus children braiding your hair."

Weiss took the picture, careful not to look into anyone's eyes, and put it away in her pocket. "Thanks," she nodded, trying to keep her cheeks from heating up and miserably failing.

"For Blake, instead, there's an entire tune cooked all for you…" Nora made to hand the fish to the girl, but then frowned. "Strange, I could've sworn I read an entire tune, not half…"

"Dofmf mefmtesf," said Blake as she kept stuffing fish into her mouth. For the ones who didn't understood, she said `doesn't matter`.

"And here we have Yang, with sunglasses," Nora stopped just long enough to hand them over to the blonde, who obviously wore them immediately. "And a 4 litres bottle of strawberry flavoured shampoo."

The heavy bottle was then passed from an overly strong bomber to an overly strong brawler. Needless to be said, four litres looked quite light in their hands.

"For Jaune-y, he sent a new outfit. He says it will go well with his Faunus tra…it…s…" she trailed off as she realized that Jaune did _not_ have Faunus traits any more. The boy took the clothes without complaints, muttering a thank you and something about how he couldn't have known. "Plus there is a portrait of Jeanne d'Arc, that it says is a lost heirloom of the Arc family, and a painting of you and your family before your father died, painted by you."

Jaune froze this time. He took the portrait but what was really worrying him was the painting. "B-but… that's impossible…" he said, shaking his head with a haunted look in his eyes. "I… I burned that painting…"

"Mr Arc, I believe that the laws of physics and reality mean little more than nothing to entities like these Writers," noted Ozpin. "I believe they somehow managed to get a hold of that painting."

He sighed as he took the painting as well. Ruby and Pyrrha wanted to see it -and secretly the other five of the eight students as well- but he didn't allow them.

"For me there's… Oh my gosh thank you thank you thank you!" she exclaimed, holding up a piece of paper. "The recipe for the Ultimate Syrupy Explosion Grenade Mark VI!"

All the ones who knew Nora paled.

Still smiling, Nora pushed another hand into the box and took out a picture before handing it to Pyrrha. "And this is for you." She didn't say what it was of but the redhead found out pretty quickly.

Jaune.

But not their Jaune. Or at least, a younger Jaune. He looked to be twelve give or take one year, with longer blond hair pushed away from his sparkling ocean blue eyes. He was dressed with a white shirt and blue pants, with a cerulean jacket over the shirt. But the most surprising detail were the large and magnificent white wings visible behind the boy's back. Carefully and naturally folded on his back, the wings had splendid white feathers and visible muscles, necessary for such limbs. The realization hit her, even if she had already been suspecting it.

Jaune was a Swan Faunus, just like his mother.

She stared at the picture a few more seconds before putting it away with a bitter smile. While it brought joy and warmth to her heart, it also brought the dark reminder of what Jaune had lost.

"And last, Renny, you are receiving two Thermoses of herbal smoothies," said Nora, handing the two large Thermos to the boy. "Ugh… enjoy…" she added with clear effort. The boy merely smirked as he took them.

Nora smiled as she folded the parchment before frowning and reaching into the box once again. "Hey, this says something else," she called out, pointing at a new note. "It's not from this Adrian guy, either."

"Well, go on and read it, Ms Valkyrie," Goodwitch urged her on.

Nora nodded. "Hello, dear Watchers. Just like Adrian before me, I've decided to send you a few gifts, and your current hosts were gracious enough to let me do this. I do hope you will enjoy my gifts and I bid you all a good day and a fine viewing. Kindest regards, Alvelvnor, Writer of Worlds, Author of Arclight: the Alpha Fragment and Dimensional Guardian."

Nora set aside the note and pushed both her hands inside the box, retrieving several plushies of Jaune. The boy's eyes shot wide open in shock while Nora cooed at the dolls, holding them up. They were all dressed in different outfits and colour themes.

Ren plucked the note from the ground and turned it around. "PS: there's a doll for each of you. Yes, even you, Jaune. They follow the colour theme of the one they should be given to. Don't fight over them. When hugged, they will even quote. Thanks, Ren, for reading this." His dark eyebrow rose slightly, but living with Nora for years had left a deep mark on the boy, and he merely shrugged.

Eventually, everyone had their own doll, and they all had tried to hug them, even Qrow, to see what would they say. The dolls had recorded the voice of Jaune saying different things like "It doesn't matter what we're called, as long as we're together." or "Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet."

Much to Jaune's embarrassment, everyone kept their doll.

 ** _Am I a cruel monster? Maybe._**

 ** _Yes, I do believe that Adam would do something like that. He's already proven himself a mix between a delusional demented and a maniacal psychopath. Also a sore ex. But don't worry, this particular trait won't weigh down the story. Not for long, at least. And yes, Blake will have a hard time explaining._**

 ** _Anyway, trust in me a little when I tell you the darkness isn't gonna last._**

 ** _So, here are the rules for any gift you readers might want to send:_**

 ** _1) No weapons/offensive items  
2) No armours/shields/protective items  
3) No unlimited items/infinite supply. (it would get tiring)  
4) No materials to create any of the aforementioned items.  
5) No materials/items/technologies/information from/about other dimensions or universes (especially because I know nothing about the other dimensions like Naruto or stuff like that)  
6) in case of new outfits, no special materials and/or added powers. Just new outfits.  
7) No objects that would heavily change the timeline/story/future._**

 ** _Usually pictures/photos (even modified or photoshopped), some food, some clothes or tools (Sun's backscratcher)... simple stuff like this. Sorry if this ruins your fun but Phoenix and I agreed that it would just complicate the fic to the power of n. Also, it would be crazy for me to write. So sorry, but not really sorry because I've got a reason to do this._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	10. Chapter 9

**_Heya guys! This chapter is out because since Remnants of Dimensions is waiting for the next chapter to be reacted to to be sent by DocX, and I was getting bored._**

 ** _Anyway, I wanted to address an important issue real quick. The gifts. I'm sorry to announce that from now on, I will no more accept gifts. As good as they were, they took too much of this chapter. I mean, this entire chapter is, without the notes, 9 806 words long. The non-gifts reaction story is 3 715 words long. The gifts themselves are 3 159 words, and the TES chapter itself is more or less 2 900 words (my math is 2 932). The gifts themselves took up more than a third of the entire chapter. I can instead accept the users sending small notes to the Watchers but it's a maybe, I'm still not sure if I will do that instead. I really love discussing of the gifts with you but as I wrote, I realized that I couldn't go on like this. The part for the gifts was longer than the average chapter for my story Trail of Blood. So, from this chapter until I say otherwise, no gifts are allowed. Any request will unfortunately be met with a kind but firm refusal._**

 ** _I'm also sad to announce that one of the gift-senders and friend of mine, Phoenix Warehouse Productions, has decided to take a break from writing and gift-sending for a while for personal reasons. I ask you to use one mere minute of your time, a minute you would've otherwise used to read this very story, to think about what he's done for others. My story Remnants of Dimensions's background has been written by me, but two thirds of the ideas are from him. He's done so much for us, and so much for me as a friend, and now I ask you to use a minute of your time here on FFN to think about him and thank him for what he's done. No words are needed, but find in your heart the gratitude I feel toward him. Thank you all._**

Almost everyone had been really happy for their gifts. Neptune and Cardin, of course, hadn't, while Ironwood, Winter and Goodwitch were still suspicious.

However, before they could start another viewing, a flame appeared out of nowhere; Phoenix's favourite way of communicate with them. The note was very simple.

 _"More gifts from other Writers are going to arrive soon. While I am happy to allow gifts to reach you, I must ask you to keep most of your gifts in a separate room as not to crowd the Watching Hall. Especially because my friend Khor abhor disorder when he's not maker of said chaos. You will see that a door has appeared behind you: it's a simple large empty room. Store your gifts in there for the time being. You are free to retrieve your gifts at any moment. It's just a way to avoid filling the room with various stuff. Signed, Phoenix."_

Not three seconds after the note had, as usual, burnt away, another portal opened and several boxes landed on the ground. Nora moved to get them but this time Ruby used her Semblance and successfully reached them before everyone else. Fishing a hand inside the first, she smiled at the note and began to read.

"Dear Miss Rose." She blinked at the apparent coincidence. "A gift, from an empathetic soul to a simple one… the cloak once worn by Summer Rose. You are not the only one to have lost a mother. May you find some comfort in this gift. Sincerely, a kindred spirit." Ruby's eyes brimmed with tears as she set the note aside and pulled a long, flowing white cloak from the box. She murmured a thank you as she wrapped herself in it without even removing her own cape.

Seeing how Ruby was currently unresponsive to the outside world, Ren took over and walked to the next box, pulling out a new note. "Dear Readers, I'm sending you all a few pictures of yourselves, modified to turn cuteness and adorableness up to eleven. And as for Ruby, I'm also adding a pack of doubly stuffed Oreos. Sincerely yours, Ethan Kenway, Writer of Worlds."

The green ninja then laid the pack of cookies before Ruby, who even in her state of emotional turmoil snatched it quicker than the eye could follow. Then Ren pulled an album of pictures from the box and showed it to the others. They were undoubtedly pictures of the Watchers themselves, even if they had tiny bodies and huge heads, and were much cuter. Except in Ruby's case because that would be impossible. **(Khor's note: think of ChibiRWBY)**

Nora finally got to the next box and pulled out a short note. "Dear Watchers, I guess it's unnecessary to say that I've sent you gifts given that other Writers have already done so. I'm thus just wishing you a good viewing and enjoy your gifts. Kindest regards, Randy, Imperial Guardsman, Writer of Worlds."

Nora smirked as she pulled out a shirt with `Hammer Time` written on the front. There was a small `for Nora` note attached to it, and only Ren's quick reflexes prevented the girl from undressing to wear it immediately. The next gift was thrown directly at Cardin's head from the gingerhead, a large leaden trophy with `Most meh leader` written on the marble base. The bully scowled as he rubbed his forehead, and began rethinking his life choices. Ozpin received a coffee mug -empty, of course- with `World's Best Headmaster` written across it, much to Goodwitch's annoyance. Qrow received a more symbolic gift, instead: a flask with a robin, a goldfinch, a crow and a raven sitting on a branch together. And finally, Team RWBY got a poster of a tiny Blake hanging from her ribbon with the caption `Yang in There`. Yang absolutely loved the poster. Blake, a little less. **(Khor's note: think of Chibi Blake)**

As Blake sulked, Yang opened the next box. "Hi there, my name's Indigo One. They call me the Troublemaker for some reason, but let's not dwell on that." Yang smirked. "Here's several gifts for you people, if you accept them."

Yang pulled a white and orange painting and an earthware pot. "For Nora and Ren, here's a pack of orange and white warpaint and a glazed earthware pot. While this seems useless, the warpaint is an ancient relic from the early Barbarians of Remnant, which reminds me of the fact that Nora is a modern Barbarian… sorry, a modern Warrior Maiden." Many a student snickered, fully agreeing with the statement. "For Ren, this pot is an ancient and priceless pot from your clan's history. Please don't break it. And don't let Nora break it."

"For Qrow, here's some Oolong tea in a flask," read Yang, handing the flask to her uncle. "Be careful because it's flammable… if you know what I mean." The man took the flask with uncertainty.

"As much as I like flasks," he said. "Why am I getting _just_ flasks? It's not like alcohol is all I have in my life."

"Ah no?" said Winter, mockingly surprised.

"For Team RWBY, here's a picture of Team STRQ. Think of it as a moral debt to you people. Surpass this team's legend, if you can." The four girls of RWBY felt their competitiveness streak perk up at the challenge and hurried to look at the team… only to slump down in defeat when they recognized just who STRQ's members were. Basically the most powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses ever graduated from Beacon.

"For Yang, here's a dog whistle as well as a bird whistle." She took out the two gifts with a confused frown, not really knowing what to do with them. Qrow was already wincing. "They're very loud, though, so be sure you're prepared for the consequences."

"For Ruby, there's a book. `Dust and its Effects for Dummies, Dumbasses, and all the categories in between`." Ruby pouted as Yang handed her the book."And yes, it's a joke."

"For Weiss, here are some double chocolate chip cookies. You can use them to blackmail… ehm, control your team leader." Weiss accepted the gifts with a somewhat creepy grin on her face. Ruby shrank but couldn't help but stare at the cookies.

"For everyone, I gave you all Fortune cookies. Be sure not to eat the wise words inside." Everyone then took one of the cookies and gently bit into them. Qrow was the first to get the piece of paper and proudly read it aloud without thinking about the consequences.

"The pain of the past can break your heart. Drinking will just make it stop."

Most Watchers had a quick laugh at that as the powerful Huntsman sulked and crumpled the paper. Even if he had to admit that it wasn't wrong.

After the laughter had subsided, Yang finished reading the note. "And that's all. Sorry if these gifts may offend you people. I need to clean my Multidimensional Kaleidoscopic Lens and make sure it's not pointed in the wrong direction. Signed, Indigo One, Former Knight in service of the Round Table, currently a simple Watcher for the Multiverse."

Blake pushed her aside and opened yet another box. It wasn't the last. "This Hero is here to give gifts to RWBY and JNPR. To Ruby I give a belt for Special Rounds for Crescent Rose. It's empty, but you can fill it with rounds so you don't have to carry them in your pockets at all times. To Weiss, a picture of your father's head photoshopped on the body of a pig… I think it's fitting. To Blake, legal paperwork signed by myself, as Writer of Worlds, that states that no, Ninjas of Love is not smut." Blake blushed. "To Yang, the bill for the damage you caused at Junior's… thankfully already paid. To Jaune, a family photo with you, your father, your mother and your younger sister Cometé. Nora, a photo of Team JNPR, your new family, all smiling at the camera… and you have a syrup grenade in your hands. There's also another picture taken four seconds after the first. Guess what happened. ;) Pyrrha, a photo of Jaune when he was eight. Ren, a bag full of herbs and a photo of your family before the tragedy. Enjoy your gifts. Signed, Blake Tourdner, Writer of Worlds, Watcher of the Multiverse."

Everyone took their gift with varying degree of emotions. Weiss laughed at her gift, while Yang laughed at Blake's and chuckled nervously at her own. Jaune and Ren alike had sober looks as they took theirs, and Nora was just laughing at the picture of JNPR covered in syrup, but smiling nonetheless. Pyrrha smiled at the photo and stored it in her pocket, near the one where Jaune was twelve. Ruby immediately wore the ammo belt, of course.

Ozpin then strode forwards and joined the students in their game of box-opening. "Hello dear Watchers, as you can guess these are my gifts for you." The Headmaster snorted a laugh. "For all the females in the room, here are photos of how your kids would look like if you married Jaune."

Needless to say or write, no one was spared from the blush that reached their cheeks. Even more so when they noticed that every single one of the kids was as adorable as a little angel. Even the one caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Especially that one. Obviously, he was Ruby and Jaune's kid.

Ozpin chuckled before continuing. "For Ozpin, a book called `All the Fucks I Give Towards the Council and their Bullshit`." The Headmaster halted for a second to flip through the pages before he chuckled. "You're the author, Ozpin. It stars Qrow Branwen and Summer Rose."

Ironwood gave him the stink eye.

"For Cardin, two spiky boots to the head, and they're homing: you can't dodge them." The teen groaned as two heavy boots imprinted themselves on his forehead. "Also, they have special imprints on their soles, so that when they hit…" Everyone got what that meant when they saw the words `EAT SHIT` printed on Cardin's forehead for a few seconds before his Aura healed them away.

"For Winter…" Ozpin raised an eyebrow as a hand made out of ice exited the box and flipped off the woman, much to her irritation. "An icy middle finger."

Jaune and Qrow weren't the only ones to laugh at that even as the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.

Finally, attached to the box there was a picture of a man whose face was hidden by a red cloak. Two green lightning bolts in an inverted V shape (^) acted as eyes, holding two peace signs up, one hand being skeletal and the other robotic. Written on the back of the picture there was a note for Jaune that Ozpin read aloud. "Jaune, I want to wish you luck in the future. I know that luck doesn't solve all problems and I know you prefer to solve trouble with skill, but a little luck never hurts. Signed Displacer, Creator of Universe-SM256, Watcher of Timelines."

Pyrrha was the next one to open a box, sighing as she saw that it was the second-to-last. "Seems like we're popular," she joked. She had no idea how right she was. "Dear People who are Watching the World, here is a mighty fine delivery of some books from my little library of interesting things. They're mostly just an enjoyable read, and I thought you could get into some of them. For Ruby and Yang, The Secrets of Nickolas Flannel, a six book series of the possible hidden life of magic, vilains and any possible local person you know. Blake, the series known as Fogborn, where having a little metal can go a long way with the art of Allomancy. Jaune, it's more of a comic set, but it's known as Legend of Zeta. Cardin and Neptune, here's a book about pooping. Sun, he's a… _decent…_ book called Sixty Shades of Grey." **(Khor's note: the non-Remnant versions of these books are The Secrets of Nickolas Flamel, Mistborn, Legend of Zelda and Fifty Shades of Grey)**

Pyrrha handed each book to its new owner before finishing the note. "Enjoy a little leasure time to read a bit of these books, I promise you, you'll enjoy them. Signed, Aries Rifter, The Man from the Asylum."

Sun blushed bright red as soon as he flipped through the pages, while both Neptune and Cardin groaned at the umpteenth offensive gift. Seriously, they needed to rethink their life choices.

Winter was the one to open the last box. "This is Tenno Victor Lazarus here. We of Clan Wolf-in-Exile bring gifts," she read aloud before starting to bring out the gifts.

"To Mister Lie Ren, we give thee an Orokin-made Tea Set, with etchings of Team JNPR and RWBY, for you to share a soothing cup of tea when the time calls. We have also figured Nora might attempt smashing it, so we hardened the set." Ren was initially sceptic that _anything_ could resiste Nora's smashing, but then he remembered just how was the sender. Someone with powers akin to a god.

"To Miss Nora Valkyrie, we give thee a small group of Noggles. All of Teams JNPR, RWBY, CVFY and CRDL. Enjoy your goofiness with their bobbing big heads. We have enclosed Pancakes in a heat bag too." Nora smiled as she took the gifts, already choosing to use CRDL's Noggles as target practice. **(Khor's notes: Noggles are the Warframe versions of Bobbleheads. I know nothing about Warframe, but the sender was gracious enough to explain it to me)**

"To Pyrrha of Nikos and Jaune of Arc, we give thee the Repala and Sovereign Syndayn respectively, to grant you a degree of, as it's said, `Badassery`. Enclosed with them are assorted chocolates made in the land of Australia, from my native world." The two teens took the cloaks, red with bronze accents for Pyrrha and silver with golden accents for Jaune. **(Khor's note: [how many notes do I have to write!?] the Syndayn are actually Syandana cloaks from Warframe. Changed the name. Google Repala Syandana or Sovereign Syandana for the images. They're too hard to describe)**

"To Cardin of Winchester, we give thee…" The boy flinched and protected his head. "A decent sandwich. Enjoy your snack." The boy blinked as Winter handed him the snack and muttered a thank you.

"To Miss Ruby Rose, we give thee the Izvara Syndayn, stylized to be like Summer Rose's Cloak, as well as homemade chocolate chip cookies. Enjoy your snacks." Ruby took the cloak and wrapped it around her frame, thus reaching her record of three cloaks/capes worn at the same time, before taking the cookies.

"To Blake of Clan Belladonna, we give thee a package of Fish and Chips, as well as the Imperator Syndayn. Wear it to show Adam that your parents' ways are the best ways." Winter handed the cloak and the food to the girl who, despite having eaten an entire tuna just a little earlier, was more than happy to dug in again.

"To Miss Yang Xiao Long, we give thee the book on a Thousand and Six Puns, as well as the Icarius, so you can truly be the Dragon Huntress." Yang took the cloak, designed to look not dissimilar to dragon wings, and the book. Needless to be said, her puns weren't in the book.

"To Weiss of Clan Schnee, we give thee the simple yet elegant Yomo Syndayn, as well as a box of shortbread." Weiss took both the food and the cloak, putting it on despite her usual outfit not really matching with cloaks.

"To Qrow Branwen, we give thee a bottle of Homingbrew Mead, aged well over a hundred years and well preserved, as well as the Dax Syndayn so as to show you have accepted the past and have moved beyond its reach, to fight for the future of everyone." Touched by the note, the one about the mead obviously, Qrow took both items with a smile.

"To Lady Winter Schnee…" she smiled at the title. "We give thee a photo of yon father Jacques Schnee getting the stuffing beaten out of him by Clem, and Whitley getting a Wedgie by Ivara, as well as the Capella Cape to warm yonself while you enjoy those two's humiliation." She chuckled at the photo and stored it in her pocket before folding the note and putting it back into the box. **(Khor's note: the sender of the gift described the photo like this: "** **The Photo(s) would show Jacques Schnee getting beaten up by a Grineer barely tall enough to get up to his Waist, while Whitley is getting a Flag-pole Wedgie, with Ivara giving a mocking salute at the base of the Pole." Since the photo description has elements of Warframe, I decided to add it as Khor's Note.)**

Finally, the boxes disappeared with a heavy sigh, almost as if someone had just finished typing lots of words and was now relieved it was over.

Strict as ever, Goodwitch managed to get everyone to store most of their gifts into the closet pointed out by Phoenix in his note. The sheer amount of the presents had been enough to crowd the room quite a bit, but everyone kept a gift for themselves.

Ruby kept her mother's cloak over her own, the photo of Jaune's and hers adorable son, and the ammo belt. Also a few cookies, but those were kept in her stomach. Weiss kept both the pictures she had gotten from Adrian Midnight-Phoenix and Blake Tourdner. Yang kept the sunglasses, the poster of `Yang in There`, and of course the book of puns.

Jaune kept the cloak and the new outfit. Nora obviously kept the picture of JNPR covered in syrup -it was too _sweet_ not to- and the Noggles of JNPR and RWBY. Pyrrha just kept both of Jaune's pictures as well as their son's photo, and the chocolates from Australia, wherever that place was. Ren instead kept his family's photo and a Thermos of herbal tea.

Cardin ate his sandwich in silence, but otherwise didn't keep anything. Neptune simply didn't really get to choose: he would've really liked to leave Adrian Midnight-Phoenix's gift in the closet, but unfortunately he didn't have a say in it. Sun kept Sixty Shades of Grey and the backscratcher, of course.

Ozpin kept the mug and the special coffee, even if he did tell himself to read the book later. Goodwitch simply kept the new cloak and stored her own away in the closet. Qrow kept both flasks… after having refilled them, but nothing else, while Ironwood kept his team's picture. Winter was torn between military strictness and humanity, but eventually she stored everything away in the closet.

After all, it wasn't as if the closet would destroy the gifts. They would be free to take them out whenever they wanted to.

They made some idle talk until a few minutes later, when the screen lit up.

 **WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE GIFTS.  
IT'S BEEN A PAIN IN THE ASS TO SORT THEM OUT AND ALLOW YOU TO RECEIVE THEM, SO WE DO HOPE YOU LIKED THEM.**

 **CARDIN AND NEPTUNE BEING THE EXCEPTION, OBVIOUSLY.**

 **ANYWAY, NOW ENJOY THE NEXT VIEWING OF**

 **JAUNE ARC: THE ELEMENTAL SWORDSMAN**

 **SIGNED  
PHOENIX, THE HOST  
KHOR, THE HOUSEOWNER**

The group exchanged a glance and then promptly shrugged. While it was the first time such a message had appeared on the screen, they had seen weirder stuff just a few minutes earlier.

 **The morning was going just as the previous one did, Jaune was up first followed by Pyrrha and Nora, who then woke up Ren although without flying across the room. Jaune was getting his supplies ready when Pyrrha came up to him.**

 **"So, Jaune, what happened yesterday? You stayed behind after Grimm Studies and then didn't come back to the dorm until late. Did something happen?" she asked.**

 **Jaune thought for a second. "Well, Professor Port wanted to know why I didn't fight that Grimm seriously and I told him my reason-"**

 **"You mean the whole hating being the center of attention thing?!" Nora chimed in from the bathroom.**

A few chuckled at Nora's antics even as Ren and Jaune alike sighed. "Well, she's right," noted Ruby. "That's the reason…"

"Being right, though, doesn't always give you permission to interrupt someone," replied Weiss. "Especially as they're about to say that very same statement."

 **"Yes, Nora, thank you for that. After that I ran into a couple of friends, who were in an argument and decided to help the two out. I don't know how much I did but hopefully, it worked out." He gave Pyrrha a smile and she returned it.**

 **"That's very nice of you, Jaune. Mind if I ask why you dislike being the center of attention?" Jaune was going to answer when Nora came out of the bathroom in her uniform.**

 **"Jaune's always been like that. Our teacher hates the spotlight as well and Jaune looks up to her. Wants to be exactly like her and picked up a lot of qualities from her." She chuckled a bit before continuing. "He even had a small crush on her for a little while. It was so cute! You should have seen the time he…" she was stopped when Ren put a hand over her mouth after Jaune gave him a 'Please stop her' look.**

Everyone stared at the screen. Pyrrha felt a small pang in her chest at knowing that her crush had had a crush on someone else, but then reminded herself that the Swordsman was from another universe, not of her own.

"Well, I guess it's not all that hard to believe," shrugged Yang. "I mean, he idolized her and got a minor crush on her. It's not so unconcebable."

"Inconceivable," corrected Weiss. "Do you even know what does that mean?"

"Yep!" replied the blonde. "When you can't have children!"

Weiss face-palmed. "No."

"Of course I know what it means, come on…" laughed Yang. "It means unbelievable."

 **Jaune sighed and was blushing. "Thank you for the save, Ren." Ren nodded before Jaune turned back to Pyrrha. "Yeah, there's that and when people see my Semblance I get a lot of attention, both good and bad." He shrugged "Besides, I wanna be a Huntsman to help people and kill Grimm. The rest is kinda part of it, a part I don't fully like, but accept."**

 **Pyrrha placed a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes, "I understand, Jaune. The spotlight can be a bit…overwhelming. I've had to deal with a lot during my time and know a bit of that. But, if you ever need someone to lean on, well…." She stopped, not sure on how to continued and looked away slightly.**

"Just ask to the girl who's been in the spotlight all her life," completed Sun, munching on a banana. Where did he took that out from, nobody knew. Not even Sun himself.

Pyrrha slumped a bit before Ren patted her shoulder. "Cheer up," he said. "In that universe, I think even your fame will be shadowed by the Swordsman's. As for this one… well, I think that after being kidnapped by a godlike entity no one would really care about your fame, would they? They would… kind of have something else to focus on."

She smiled, but it was Nora who hammered the point home, no pun intended. "Yeah! I mean, you're awesome and all, Pyrrha, but that's all you! Not your fame!"

 **She looked back up when she felt Jaune's hand on hers and saw him smiling. "Thanks, Pyrrha. I knew I got the best partner." She smiled and blushed slightly at that. Then Jaune smirked before continuing, "Although, you throwing Milo at me wasn't the best idea."**

 **She blushed a bit deeper before she hit him in the shoulder lightly. "Will you let that go already?"**

 **"I did let it go. That's how you got it back when I came in to save you." He had a teasing grin on his face and Pyrrha was about to reply when Nora ran over to them and wrapped her in a hug before sending a slight glare at Jaune.**

"Smartass," commented Neptune.

"Very much so," replied Jaune, not missing a beat.

"Are you like that?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

Neptune frowned. "You haven't sounded like a smartass all along…"

"If you're deaf, it's not my problem," shrugged Jaune.

"But he's right!" exclaimed Cardin. "For you to be a smartass is less probable than for me to beat Nikos! You just don't have the guts for it!"

"Cardin, humans and Faunus have been gifted with a wonderful organ called `brain`. Try to use it, it's a wonderful feeling," replied Jaune in a bored tone. " _Nothing_ is less probable than you beating Pyrrha in a fight."

 **"Jaune, stop teasing Pyrrha! That's no way to treat my new sister!"**

 **Jaune leaned over to look at her in the eyes, still with a grin on his face, "That mean you're telling me to tease you than, Little Sis?"**

 **Her eyes widened before the glare was back. "Do you want me to break your legs?"**

"Twenty Lien Arc gets his legs broken," snorted Cardin.

"Twenty Lien he can fight off Nora," replied Yang.

"I bet against the both of you," yawned Ren, and the two realized they had just made a mistake.

 **The two were glaring at each other, Pyrrha was looking between the two not sure what to do and Ren was getting his things. Eventually the two started laughing at each other, Nora booped Jaune on the nose and Jaune patted Nora on the head. "Alright, let's get moving. We still need to grab breakfast before class." He held the door open for his team and Nora ran out shouting 'Pancakes!' with Ren going after her. Pyrrha followed before he shut the door behind them and they walked with each other. They heard what sounded like raised voices from RWBY's dorm but opted to let them deal with it.**

Cardin and Yang grudgingly slipped twenty Lien each to the ninja of JNPR while Nora giggled. "You don't know Nora like I do," he said. "She may threaten, but she's too caring to do that to a friend. An enemy, that's for sure. But a friend? She'll stop eating pancakes before she harms a friend intentionally."

 **"Hey, Jaune, why do you call Nora your little sister?"**

 **He chuckled a bit. "Because she's shorter than me. She's slightly annoyed by it but she knows I say it with love. She just acts like she hates it but she loves the nickname."**

"You call me `little` just because I'm short?!" exclaimed Nora, outraged.

"You call me Fearless Leader just because I'm the leader," he shot back in kind. "And I'll let you know that all thorough the initiation I was terrified."

"Oh, well, everyone was," snorted Yang before all eyes turned to her. "What? Do you think that jumping into a Nevermore's mouth and shoot rounds into its throat is a natural thing to do? Of course I was terrified."

"You didn't _look_ terrified," commented Weiss.

"Well, I was high on adrenaline," she laughed. "That's why I like fighting! I mean, if I just liked risking my life, I could've taken up free climbing. I like the adrenaline of the fight."

"That was… unusually well said, for you," noted Blake. Yang blew her a raspberry.

 **"Is it similar when she calls you Fearless Leader?"**

 **He grinned. "Maybe."**

 **That's when they heard a shout then the door to RWBY's dorm busted open. They turned around to see Yang run out and look up and down the hall. She stopped when her eyes land on Jaune and Pyrrha. Her Ember Celica encased her arms and she started to run down the hall. "ARC!"**

"Oh boy, what did you do this time?" asked Sun.

"Nothing," he replied. "Yang sometimes just goes on a rampage for nothing."

The blonde winced at the deadpan tone. "I…"

"He's right, you know?" added Blake. "You do tend to lose your temper very easily."

"Well…"

"Like that time where you broke a student's arm because he cut off _two strands_ of your hair during a fight," Weiss continued the onslaught. "Last time I checked, arms are more important than hair."

"Yeah, but you see…"

"Not to mention all the times she's punched the mailman back in Patch just because she thought he was hitting on her or me," Ruby piped up. "Until the post office learned to send us just carriers who did not swing that way."

"Guys, I mean…"

"And that is without counting all the damage she causes to the school during her `friendly spars` outside the arenas," Goodwitch threw in her own two cents.

Yang threw her arms up in the air. "Oh, come on!"

 **Jaune didn't know what led to this but he didn't care. He ran down the hall as quickly as he could. As he rounded the corner he saw an angry Yang run past a stunned Pyrrha. Jaune kept running to get out of the dorms and into the courtyard as quickly as he could. Yang the whole time was on his heels shouting at him to stop. When Jaune got out into the courtyard and ran a decent distance from the school before he decided to turn. He slid on the grass slightly as he turned around and in a rudimentary fighting stance. "Yang, calm down! What the hell did I do!?"**

"Oh boy, this is gonna end poorly," sighed Yang. "Jaune, I'm sorry beforehand for any long-lasting injury your other self might end up with."

"Thanks," drawled the boy. "But I'd prefer if you could simply avoid all-wrecking temper tantrums. They kinda get annoying if you're the target of them."

"You mean lethal…" snorted Sun.

"Yang's a hothead, not a murderer nor an idiot," replied Jaune. "Even when she's angry she knows when to stop and she would never go as far as that. The most she could cause would be some ever-lasting injuries, but only for serious matters."

"AND EVER-LASTING INJURIES AREN'T ENOUGH OF A MOTIVATION TO CALL HER LETHAL?!" exclaimed Neptune, shocked by Jaune's lack of self-preservation.

"Grammatically, he's right," mumbled Blake.

 **Yang stopped a few feet away, her eyes still red. "Don't play dumb, Arc! I know you took advantage of my little sister!"**

"WHAT?!" was everyone's response. Even Goodwitch joined in.

 **"What!? I didn't do any-" He tried to explain but Yang cut him off.**

 **"She told me you kissed her!"**

 **"Yeah I did but-" Again she cut him off.**

Yang gaped at the screen for a few more seconds before she groaned. "Oh my Oum…" she whined. "My other self thinks he kissed Ruby, but not on the forehead!"

Jaune blinked. "Suddenly I'm not so sure that the Swordsman will survive any more."

"Miss Xiao Long, your overprotective behaviour must change," Goodwitch scolded her. "Miss Rose can handle herself. Not only she's one of the best fighters in this school, but she's also your team leader. Treating her like a child is a habit you should get rid of."

"TOLD YOU!" exclaimed Ruby even as Yang grumbled something in defeat.

"What I am confused about, though, is why would you forbid Ruby to have her first kiss," commented Ren. "I mean, she's fifteen. She can handle herself and, to be honest, I'm _surprised_ she hasn't had her first kiss yet."

Yang shrugged. "It's complicated," she said. "Let's just say that my first kiss was with a jerk that broke up with me to chase another chick. I don't want Ruby to give her first kiss to a jerk, so I'm really finicky about the boys allowed around her."

"So you mean that no one of us is good enough for her?" snorted Neptune.

Yang barked out a laugh. "I know that Jaune, Ren and Sun are okay guys. But the point is that Ruby hasn't shown interest in any of them," she replied. "So, while I would not get _too_ angry if they kissed her, I want her to give her first kiss to someone she genuinely loves."

Jaune nodded in agreement. "More or less the same I do with my sisters," he said before smirking evilly, causing everyone close to him to lean away. "Although my ways usually involve scaring the crap outta their would-be boyfriends or girlfriends, abducting them for `family meetings` aka third-degree interrogations, my mother staring at them for an uninterrupted hour, and stuff like that."

For a second, nobody spoke. Then…

"Jaune, have I ever told you that your family is weird and you're scary?" asked Sun.

"Now you have," replied his fellow blond.

 **"So you admit it!" She shot off at him with a punch. Jaune was able to divert her punch with his forearm but could still feel the wind come off her fist. He quickly spun and jumped back from her. She came at him again but this time with a devastating combo. He was able to either divert or dodge most of them until he caught her last punch in the stomach and dropped to the ground. She was about to axe kick him but he reflexively swept her leg out from under her. As she fell, Jaune got up and on top of her trying to hold her down.**

 **"Yang, calm down, let me expla-" he was cut off when she headbutt him followed by throwing him across the courtyard. Jaune was able to flip and land on his feet using his aura to slow himself down. His feet were causing trenches to form and before he was completely stopped, he looked to see Yang on her feet and fired three shots at him. Jaune crossed his arm in front of him before they reached him. The resulting explosion kicked up a lot of dust and smoke.**

A few gasped, but most of them knew that the Swordsman wasn't out of the picture yet.

"He's got guts to face me and skill not to get killed by me," noted Yang.

"Ms Xiao Long, I am extremely disappointed in you," Goodwitch stated with a frown. "While this might be considered a `friendly spar`, you are using your weapons against an unarmed opponent. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"It's not her fault the Swordsman didn't call for his locker or didn't want to harm her by using his weapons," replied Blake. "He has shown to be very skilled. Yang may win this round because he's unarmed, but I think he would win otherwise."

 **Yang looked at the smoke and dust before shouting, "You dead yet?!"**

 **As a response the dust and smoke was blown away instantly. Jaune was standing there slightly burned with his aura flaring wildly, but instead of the usual white it was crimson red along with his eyes. Jaune popped his neck before saying, "Not even close and I'm so glad you use fire dust." He dropped back into his fighting stance and she did the same.**

 **"Done trying to talk your way out of this?"**

 **"No, just gonna do that afterwards. Since you refuse to listen."**

"He's right, Yang," agreed Jaune. "One of your greatest flaws is your unwillingness to slow down, stop and think about what you're doing."

 **They both stared at each other before the took off at each other at the same time. Yang using a discharge from Ember Celica and Jaune using his aura. Their fists connected and caused a shockwave. Yang looked on in shock before Jaune used her shock to kick her in the stomach before following up with a left cross. She was able to bring up her guard so that she only went flying. When she landed, Jaune was already on his way after her, using his aura. She reflexively fired off another shot and she regretted it when Jaune quickly absorbed it. Jaune went for a right jab but Yang dodged it, grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder. Jaune was able to land on his feet but got hit in the face by her other fist, he was wondering if she somehow got slightly stronger than before. Jaune spun and connected his right elbow into her back. She stumbled forward slightly and turned just in time for Jaune to connect with a roundhouse kick. She was sent flying again and as soon as Jaune's other foot touched the ground, he fired off after her with his aura. Yang was in the middle of correcting herself when Jaune connected with his right arm in a lariat. Yang was sent further back and landed in a crater.**

"Wow," breathed Yang. "Except for people trained in hand-to-hand CQC, I've never met someone who could fight me like that unarmed. I mean, most Huntsmen and Huntresses use weapons and never bother to learn unarmed fight, yet he's matching me even without his weapons."

"We've already noticed how the Swordsman seems to be among the strongest first year students, if not _the_ strongest," noted Ozpin. "Honestly, at this point I would be more surprised to find out what he _can't_ do, instead of what he can."

Cardin let out a mix between a snort and a laugh. "Too bad our own Arc is pathetic in comparison," he commented wickedly.

"Cardin, for a while, I've been wondering…" said Jaune. "Do you even know what the word `intelligence` mean? Because so far you've been showing an incredible lack of it."

"Dumbass," grumbled Cardin.

"Yeah, that's another word for what I meant."

 **Jaune was trying to catch his breath and was wondering if he went too far. Until an explosion of fire and aura erupted from the crater with Yang standing in the middle of it, her hair glowing now. "Well, that isn't good. Guess that's your Semblance?"**

 **Yang slammed her fists together and the aura dissipated. "Yup."**

"What exactly does your Semblance do?" asked Sun.

"The more hits I get, the stronger I get," she replied with a shrug.

"Actually, that's incorrect," burped Qrow after a swig from his flask. "You can turn the kinetic energy of the hits you don't block or parry into raw power that you channel into your body. The flames are just a way for the body to discharge the excessive energy without damaging itself."

"That's the first time I've heard you sound so professional," snarked Winter.

"Yang sparred with me when she was bored," he shrugged. "And she's my niece. One has to know their niece's Semblance."

 **"Well great." He sighed and got back into his fighting stance. There was another slight pause before Yang charged at him. Jaune tried for an uppercut but missed and Yang landed a fist into his chest. He was sent flying away again and that one hurt significantly more. 'Yeah, she's definitely stronger.' He landed in a crater and slowly stood back up. Yang was charging at him again. "I hope this works or I'm dead." He had his hands at his sides with his fingers curved in. He started to focus his fire infused aura into his palms, superheating the air until he had two fire balls in his hands. When Yang was close enough to him, he brought his hands up and released the fire into two streams directly at her. Her eyes widened in shock and she dived to the side to avoid that, using a barrel roll to get back onto her feet. She had no time to react when Jaune shot forward with aura and infused a large amount of aura into his right knee, connecting it with her chin. She landed in a heap and Jaune was doubled over, out of breath. His stamina was almost gone due to his fire infused aura and he has been heavily using it to keep even with Yang.**

"That was awesome!" exclaimed Sun.

"The more I watch, the more I regret the fact that our own universe does not have the Swordsman," sighed Ironwood. "People like him are the ones who truly protect Remnant."

"Prodigies?" asked Qrow, with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly," nodded the General. "Team RWBY and part of Team JNPR have already proven themselves to be incredible prodigies. They have high combat prowess without lacking in the heart department like, unfortunately, many other strong warriors do."

"Yeah, it's a real pity I'm the odd one out who drags them all down, isn't it?" drawled Jaune, slowly returning to his angstier self from the last viewing. The seven students glared at Ironwood for having broken the miraculous spell that had kept him somewhat serene during the current viewing.

"If I have to be frank, and I _will_ be frank Mr Arc, your statement is correct," Goodwitch coldly remarked. If there was something that irked her more than having a student cheat his way into her school, it was hearing that student complain because he wasn't on par with his peers. "Without you, your team would be much better off. At the risk of sounding like the `bad guy`, you are a liability for your team. You are catching up in academic subjects but you're still far behind in all combat-related class. You're simply not fit for Beacon as of now." Her eyes narrowed as she leaned slightly forwards. What she was about to say was vicious to say the least, but it was her best shot for convincing the boy to leave and both improve his team by freeing them of his liability and saving him from dying on a mission he wasn't prepared for. "You don't belong here. You never have and possibly never will."

Several people stood up to tell her off. Ozpin himself rose from his couch with a severe expression of his face, his eyes clearly saying that she had just crossed a line. All of Jaune's friends stood up angrily, even the usually calm Ren, and were probably ready to disrespect their teacher. Cardin snorted in agreement, while Sun and Neptune just looked uncomfortable. Ironwood, partially sharing Goodwitch's opinion, found himself eyeing the others, while Winter just sighed. Even Qrow was glaring at Glynda.

Jaune merely laughed. "Should the fish believe he doesn't belong to the sea just because a larger fish told him so?" he asked sarcastically. "Because that's what it sounded like to me. You've been `subtly` trying to make me feel shit ever since I first came to Beacon. It's not gonna work, you should change approach."

Goodwitch's eyes seemed ready to incinerate the boy, but Ozpin's severe expression stopped her. The man held her gaze for a second before turning to Jaune. "I'm sorry it has come to this, Mr Arc. Professor Goodwitch was trying to protect you in her own way by preventing you to stay in a school for the highly trained where you could die," he said as Jaune and a few others scoffed. "In her opinion, hurting your feelings and maybe ruining your dream is a price worth paying for your survival."

"Who said it is?" Jaune snorted.

"He's right," nodded Ruby. "I mean, I don't want him to die, but it's not like I can lock him in a door for all his life just because that way he'll be safe. I mean, my family obviously doesn't want me to die but they allowed me to attend Beacon…"

"But you are trained, Ms Rose…" began Ironwood.

"That's bullshit and you know it," said Yang. "Jaune is the weakest among us but he's got a large reserve of Aura and his fighting style is the most defensive out of all of ours. I don't see the problem, actually."

"He's not…"

"Ms Goodwitch is, like all of us here, just a mortal being," replied Ozpin. "She has her biases and one of those is her stubborn opinion that untrained people are just going to get themselves killed by doing anything." A sharp glare shut up Goodwitch's oncoming protest. "Mr Arc has not received formal training, so she's worried he might wound up dead for this lack of skill of his. As I said, she's just human, and humans have biases."

Slowly, everyone calmed back down, but Goodwitch had a look in her eyes that said it wasn't over yet. Ozpin's eyes conveyed a similar message, though aimed to his own Deputy Headmistress.

 **They both stood up and looked into each other's red eyes, they silently agreed to end this. They got back into their stances and waited. Five seconds later, they both shot off one last time. They both put their remaining strength behind their punches and their fists met again. The two forces created a huge shockwave and a noticeable crater that kicked up a lot of dust. As it settled, the two were still standing there, fists still connected. Both were breathing heavy and barely standing. They just kept staring into each other eyes, they slowly shifted back to lilac and blue. They both fell and landed at the same time. On their backs, next to each other and looking up at the sky. They were both trying to catch their breath before Jaune snickered slightly before he started to laugh. Yang turned her head to look at him in confusion.**

 **"What is wrong with us? We could've settled this with five minutes of talking, had breakfast and gone to class. Instead, we fought for ten minutes, all but missed breakfast and still have classes." He started laughing again and this time Yang joined him. They laughed for a few minutes until they calmed down and laid in silence. "So, wanna talk now?" Jaune asked.**

"He's not wrong, they're gonna miss breakfast," noted Weiss. "Although I'm kinda surprised _that_ is what he notices first after having just fought against an angry Yang."

 **"Yeah. Answer me honestly." She turned back to him. "Did you kiss Ruby?"**

 **Jaune nodded. "I did." He turned to her before continuing. "But on the forehead."**

 **The rest of her anger vanished at that. "Oh, that's not nearly as bad. But why?"**

 **"Ruby was kinda stressed with leader stuff. I gave her some advice and told her she could talk to me about it if it got too much for her. It seemed to help her and to try to get her back to her normal self, I teased her with that kiss." He groaned in slight pain. "May not have been worth it though."**

"Totally worth it," Jaune snorted a laugh. Ruby blushed red while everyone else stared at him. "What? I may be the weakest but I do enjoy a good fight."

"Oh, you mean…" Yang sighed in relief. "Not the kiss."

Jaune scoffed a laugh. _'Yeah, that too. I may not like Ruby as anything more than a friend but I know when a girl's hot enough to melt stone.'_

 **Yang looked away before continuing, "I'm sorry about that. When I heard you…"**

 **Jaune cut her off by trying to wave her apology away. "I understand, Yang. You were protecting your sister. I have seven myself, remember? I would've probably done the same thing in your place."**

"I would've done worse," lightly commented Jaune.

"What, exactly?" asked Neptune.

"Well, there was one time when a bitch repeatedly cheated on my sister Amor," he recalled fondly. "We locked her in our basement for two days in complete darkness, and three times a day one of us would go downstairs and scare the hell out of her. After we let her out, she had sessions with a psychologist for a few months."

The students weren't the only ones who shivered.

 **"I still feel bad though."**

 **"How about if there's another misunderstanding between me and Ruby, get all the details before you try to kill me?" he smirked at her.**

 **She gave him a small smile, "That sounds fair. Although that was one of the best fights I've had. Where'd you learn all that?"**

 **"My teacher taught me the basics of hand-to-hand and traveling around I added a few moves I saw here or there. Not a master by any means but I kept even with you so can't be too shabby." He chuckled, "Well since you know my Semblance, mind sharing yours since I've seen it know?"**

 **Yang thought for a second, "Sure. Pretty much, every hit I take lets me absorb the force and dish it back out twice as much." She smiled at him.**

"Again, not really correct but it's a passable description," commented Qrow.

"And what is yours?" asked Yang.

"Professional secret," he said with a wink. "Can't let my own niece find out too much about my fighting style or I would never be able to defeat you again."

 **"That explains a lot. Mostly the bruises."**

 **She snickered at that, "Oh wait, that reminds me. How'd you throw fire at me?"**

 **"I used my fire infused aura to ignite the air then manipulated the fire. It used a lot of my infused aura to do it though."**

 **"Wow. You knew you could do that?"**

 **"Nope. Figured that out about five minutes ago."**

"Cool," Sun smirked. "Not even a month into Beacon and he's already learned something new. Isn't it cool?"

"Yes, it is," admitted Neptune.

"I'm more worried about the fact he used a new technique in a fight without testing it beforehand."

 **She looked at him shocked, "You didn't know you could do that?!"**

 **He chuckled, "Nope. Just winged it."**

 **"And what if it failed?"**

 **He shrugged, "I would've got my block knocked off."**

"Why am I not surprised?" Blake deadpanned.

"He gambled and won the round," replied Qrow. "It's a good way to fight."

"Fighting requires focus, skill and extreme precision," growled Winter. " _Not_ recklessness."

"And now I know from who Weiss took all her coldness," Yang whispered to Ruby, who giggled under her breath.

 **They laid there for a little bit longer before Yang asked a question. "Can we fight again? I'd love to learn a few moves." Jaune almost thought she sounded nervous and thought for a second.**

 **"Sure. But next time, let's hold back a bit. I feel like I got hit by a train." He was slowly getting up and groaning. "And we still have class."**

 **"Don't remind me." Yang whined. She sat up and saw Jaune standing up and holding out a hand for her. She took it and he helped her up. As she stood she stumbled forward into his chest and Jaune held her so she didn't fall. They stayed like that for a bit before Yang looked at Jaune with a slight blush and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks for being so cool about this, Jaune."**

 **Jaune had his own blush, "No problem, Yang. What's a fight between friends?" They started to slowly get out of the crater, leaning on each other for support. When they got out they saw a very angry Professor Goodwitch coming towards them.**

"Oh my Oum," groaned both teens, their blushed quickly replaced with despair. On the screen, Other-Yang was having more or less the same reaction, while the Swordsman looked to be thinking at the speed of lightning.

 **"Would one of you two explain, why you two destroyed the courtyard first thing in the morning?" She asked with frustration and anger.**

 **Yang looked down before speaking, "Well, you see Miss Goodwitch. I…"**

 **Jaune cut her off, "Asked to spar with me before breakfast and I agreed." The both turned to him in shock.**

 **"You consider that a spar, Mr. Arc?" Goodwitch asked with disbelief.**

 **Jaune scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "We both kinda went overboard when our Semblances activated. Right, Yang?" He turned to her with a smile and a subtle wink.**

 **She quickly continued, "Yeah. He said he knew some hand-to-hand and I wanted to see how much."**

 **Goodwitch turned to Yang, "So why do you have your weapon active, Miss Xiao Long?"**

 **Her heart dropped slightly until Jaune stepped in again, "She used it to allow me to use my Semblance when her's activated so we'd be even." Yang nodded at that.**

 **Goodwitch looked between the two of them and the destroyed courtyard. She sighed before she brought her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "I should give you both detention but I'll let you both off with a warning. And if you two wish to spar again keep the destruction to a minimum. Understood?"**

 **"Yes, ma'am!" The said in unison.**

"I can't believe it."

"They managed to trick the Witch."

"It's not possible…"

"Yang, pinch me. I must be dreaming."

"What next? Is it gonna start raining pancakes?"

Ozpin, Qrow and Ironwood couldn't help their amused expressions as Goodwitch stared flatly at the students, who continued their stupefied murmurs for a few more seconds before turning back to the screen. "I'm not _that_ bad," she grumbled under her breath.

"I beg to disagree," snickered Qrow.

 **They were both dismissed as she went about fixing the courtyard. Yang was still using Jaune as a support but not because she was weak. "Thank you again, Hero."**

 **He smiled, "No problem, Sun Fire."**

 **She looked at him, "Sun Fire?"**

 **He nodded, "Yup. Since you call me Hero, I decided you needed a nickname as well. And I think Sun Fire is perfect." He looked to her, "Why? Is it bad?"**

 **She chuckled and shook her head, "No, it's fine. I mean I do kick ass and burn bright like the sun."**

"Yeah, plus I'm hot! Wink!" exclaimed Yang.

"Yang, you're not supposed to say `wink`," sighed Blake. "Even _I_ know that."

 **"Don't forget, just as beautiful." He said with a teasing grin.**

 **She punched him gently, "Didn't you learn not to tease people?"**

 **"Nope. Just not to tease Ruby." He was smirking now. "Why? Can't take it?"**

 **She gave her own smirk, "Careful or this Sun Fire may burn you."**

 **"I think I can take it."**

 **They just looked at each other before they heard Pyrrha and Ruby shouting their names. They turned to see both their teams running to them. They had a lot to explaining to do.**

"Yup, they have," commented Sun.

Everyone soon began to make some idle talk among themselves as they waited for the next viewing to take place. Team (J)NPR chatted a little about Nora's view of her team as her family, and it has to be said that Pyrrha was moved by the shorter redhead's sincerity and affection. Team (R)WBY was speaking about Yang's temper tantrums, even if it was mainly Blake speaking while Weiss and Yang argued. Sometimes, it was hard to be the B between W and Y.

Most of the adults stayed silent, either lost in thought or just relaxing, as in Ozpin's case. Goodwitch and Ironwood had decided to play triumph, with Goodwitch already starting to win while Ironwood sighed every few minutes. Qrow merely stared at the void, lost in his own thoughts or maybe in the alcohol, while Winter was torn between going to talk with her sister and following the military code aka do nothing until told otherwise.

Jaune, a few minutes of scribbling notes after the end of the viewing, got up and headed for the door that would lead him to the training Arena. Before he could exit, though, something red and black blocked his way.

"Where are you going?" asked Ruby.

"Can't tell you exactly where because I'm not sure myself," he replied with a sigh. "But I am _heading_ to the arenas, hoping to find a technical design room or something like that for a few sketches."

"Sketches?" echoed the smaller girl.

Jaune looked at her before sighing. "I fully well know that despite it being my family's heirloom, Crocea Mors isn't _mine_ ," he said. "You said it yourself: our weapons are extensions of ourselves. How can Crocea be an extension of me, if it was forged by my ancestor? It's like trying to attach the limb of your grandfather to your own stump. Sure, it might fit but it will never be _yours._ "

Ruby frowned. "Jeez, your examples are moody," she drawled before lighting up. "Wait, does this mean you're gonna forge a new weapon?!"

Jaune sighed again. "Yes Ruby, I am," he nodded defeatedly. "What? You're gonna make fun of me for that?"

Ruby went wide-eyed at that. "Whaaat?! I would never do that!" she exclaimed. "I just want to see it!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow before sighing and showing her a sketch. "It's not ready yet, though…"

"It doesn't matter!" exclaimed the girl, looking at the notes. "Mhm… how big is it?" She squinted to read the admittedly really beautiful but nearly unreadable encrypted code that was Jaune's handwriting. There was a reason no one ever asked him to see his notes. Even the professors seemed to have a hard time deciphering the undulating waves and gracious curves. The only clear characters were the numbers. "Nine? Well, given your height, it's really long."

Yang, somewhere nearby, choked on thin air.

"It's not really all that impressive," mumbled Jaune.

"What?! Don't say that!" exclaimed Ruby, pointing at the drawing. "I'm sure that if you let me help you, it'll be great!"

"Ruby, it's my first time doing this…" protested the boy.

"Well, I can guess why you're nervous then," Ruby laughed awkwardly before smiling again. "But don't worry! I'll work you to the bone, until you're ready to have your very first baby!"

"WHAT THE OUM-ACCURSED FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" shouted a very angry and very close by voice, namely Yang's.

Ruby and Jaune both recoiled and turned to the blonde brawler. "Ehm… Jaune's new weapon?" replied Ruby while Jaune waved the notepad as to show the truthfulness of that statement.

Yang's brain took ten full seconds before finally processing what had just been said. Then it took another ten seconds to recall all the not-so-purposefully said innuendos. She decided not to trust them on that. " _What_ is nine inches long?"

Ruby blinked before laughing. "Oh my, I meant nine feet!" She turned to Jaune, who was blushing as he caught exactly what Yang had imagined they were talking about. "Jaune, can you imagine fighting with a weapon that's _nine inches_ long?! It'd be next to useless!"

"Yeah…" he coughed awkwardly into his fist, trying to get Ruby to understand what exactly was the issue Yang was addressing.

"Leaving the middle part aside, then why were you talking about babies!?" shouted Yang.

Ruby blinked. "Like Crescent Rose…" she begun before her brain finally supplied her with the topic they had been addressing and she turned redder than her cape. "NOT LIKE THAT! WEAPONS! WE WERE TALKING ABOUT WEAPONS!"

Finally, the whole audience behind them exploded into laughters.

 ** _Nothing better than false innuendos to lighten the atmosphere. As you might guess, Jaune's new weapon is a polearm (almost no sword is 9 ft long. Except maybe a flamberg). It's not just that. You'll see it in a few chapters._**

 ** _The senders of the gifts are, in order: Sm0keyPanda, Arno Uzumaki, Randy the Imperial Guardsman, Indigo One, Blake Tourdner, TheDisplacerOfEquestrias, Afro121 - Aries Rifter, Victor John Foxfire. A lot, aren't they? ;) Thanks to each and everyone of you guys!_**

 ** _And here is a small Omake I made for Alvelvnor, the sender of the dolls of the previous chapter:_**

 ** _TITLE: PULLING JAUNE'S LEG._**

 _"I forgot to tell you that when you pull your doll's leg, it will quote the most perverted thoughts Jaune has on the owner. Signed, Alvelvnor, sender of those dolls."_

Needless to say, everyone had frozen as the note had appeared on each and every doll. Also needless to be said, all the Seven Students had immediately grabbed their doll's leg and pulled, while Jaune had somehow learned how to teleport himself back in Remnant. In order, the dolls quote Jaune's thoughts on Yang, Nora, Weiss, Ren, Pyrrha, Ruby and Blake.

"She says she's not a bimbo but I bet she'd like if I fucked her into tomorrow."

"An ass like hers just begs to be fucked until I run dry."

"She's so uptight, but I bet she's a screamer. I just have to fuck her right."

"I'll be frank: if all men were like him, then the women would need to find another planet because I'd fuck each and every one of them myself."

"Mmh, a champion, uh? Bet she's really flexible but I wonder just how much of me can she take before she can't move any more."

"Such a cute face... I can't wait to see it covered in cum after I creampie'd her pussy full of cum and I knocked her up."

"Seems I'm lucky, there's a naughty kitty who needs punishment. She'd better start praying because she won't walk for a month after I'm done."

Seven bodies hit the floor.

No one else dared pull Jaune's leg.

Jaune, meanwhile, pondered ritual suicide.

 ** _Sorry if the `perverted thoughts`aren't all that original/well-written, but I honestly don't have much experience with `perverted thoughts`. The most I can think is `nice figure` or `cute/pretty`. My hormones died during the first year of being always locked in my room. This is the fifth year I pass mainly in my room. My hormones had their funeral, everyone came to farewell them one last time, they were buried and forgotten about. I think I even have the tombstone somewhere._**

 ** _Well, now I'm out!_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	11. Chapter 10

**_Hey everyone! This chapter had to be uploaded in a weird way because I couldn't copy-paste it. Also, my brother is breathing down my neck because in 7 minutes we have work to do, so I'm in a bit of a hurry._**

 ** _Also, in the last chapter's reviews a guest pointed out how they knew a sword 11 ft long (they also said it was `Sephiroth's`). Just to make things clear, the longest sword actually used in warfare was the flamberge used by the doppelsoldners (a particular type of_** ** _Landsknecht), that could reach even above 2 meters (6/7 feet). The longest known Zweihander (this type of sword I'm talking about) is supposed to have been used by the Frisian hero Pier Gerlofs Donia, currently exposed at the Fries Museum, is 213 cm long (~84 inches) and weighed 6,6 kg (~15 lb). Their built is more similar to the one of a polearm due to the length of the sword, and required a handle of more than 25 cm (9,8 inches) to be wielded. Often, a hand would be kept on the guard (perpendicolar to the blade) to use the sword as a spear to move the spears aside and thrust the sword into the unfortunate spearman/pikeman behind it. Then the swordsman would twisted the guard of 90 degrees and eviscerate the pikeman as he retracted the blade. Also, the Zweihanders weren't made for melee combat. Huge, unwieldy and clumsy, they were made for one-hit assaults and then usually they were dropped or the swordsman retreated. They were so large they weren't kept in a sheathe, but instead slung on the should like a halberd. Hope this explains why a 9-ft-long weapon can only be a polearm._**

 ** _Watch out, this chapter is dark-ish (not by my standards but people and I have different perceptions of darkness)._**

It's time for a second lesson about Vlakha Naroak.

The lesson is extremely simple. Time, Space, Reality, Relativity, Matter, Space-Time Continuum and Logic are all Natural Forces that rule the universes and even the in-between. Without them, the universes would be a total mess. Luckily they exist.

However, there are some entities who can look at them and flip them off. These entities are called Writers of Worlds, Dimensional Guardians, sometimes Divinities, and even Origins. Now, despite most of Them not being rude and thus not actually flipping off the Natural Forces, they can simply ignore whatever the universes they reside in throw at them. While their physical bodies, called their Presence, are victims to the Natural Forces of their home universe, their minds and wills, called Entities, instead reign supreme over everything.

Vlakha Naroak was no exception.

Despite Jaune knowing next to nothing about Weapon Tracing and Forging (WTF?), Vlakha Naroak's eccentric way of handling the Natural Forces allowed him to learn at an incredible pace. With no external distractions, complete focus on the task at hand, a cute and helpful assistant slash teacher, and most of all high-quality materials, Jaune soon managed to get the hang of WTF, even if the price for that newfound skill was a bunch of wasted tons of materials. Yes, tons.

In the end, they had managed to draw a correct and precise design for Jaune's new weapon, agreeing on leaving the actual forging to the boy himself. Since it was _his_ weapon, it was only natural it had to be him its forger, especially due to the delicious double-meaning of he word `forger`.

After their return Yang successfully embarrassed both Jaune and Ruby by asking the latter if she still had her virginity intact. With their usual social inept… _awkwardness_ , the two of them had managed to blush a lovely shade of cherry as they sat back down. But before the screen could lit up, a large flame appeared in the middle of the room.

They all knew what it was and, sure enough, Phoenix stood in the flame's place just a few instants later. His expression, however, was severely displeased. Not angry, but his eyes were narrowed in a frown and his mouth was pressed into a thin line.

"Hello, everyone," he said, barely managing to keep his voice neutral. "I wasn't planning on reappearing so soon, but it has come to my notice that someone here, someone with a truly narrowed mind, is in dire need of a reality check."

The Watchers exchanged curious and worried glances, but one by one they followed Phoenix's glower until it landed… on Goodwitch.

She cocked and eyebrow. "With all due respect, I do not know what you're talking about. All my opinions have solid and logical reasonings to support them."

"That maybe be true but again, it's narrow compared to what I know. You see Jaune at face value, yet you haven't given a single thought to what he could be. I've seen thousands of Jaune Arcs across the Multiverse, all powerful in their own ways. But do you know how many of them had that power _before_ coming to Beacon?". Phoenix closed his eyes for a second and smirked, his expression the picture of irony. "Less than half of them. Kinda makes sense that a school to train Huntsmen and Huntresses would actually be able to make someone into one, huh?", he grinned as he opened his eyes just barely, sarcasm clear in his voice.

Goodwitch gritted her teeth. "I may not be some all-knowing entity who travels across universes, Phoenix, but I've taught at Beacon for years. Mr Arc is not fit for Beacon as of now, and he will only get himself killed. Plus, his team would need to take care of him on all missions to avoid him to die." She sighed heavily. "I'm not saying he's not skilled in anything, nor I'm saying he won't ever become a Huntsman. But with the combat skill he currently has, he would fit Signal's second, maybe third year. Not Beacon's first year."

Phoenix laughed. "I'm nowhere close to all-knowing. I'm a Writer, not a God and to be honest, I would never want to be one. But back to what we were discussing, the physical aspect is only one side of combat. And honestly, when it comes to the mental aspects, well… he is pretty good at it. Plus he has the will to push himself beyond any limit he hits. Plus, if it's just his combat skills that are lacking, why hasn't the `Combat Instructor` done her job to help him… Instead of cutting him down at every turn?", he asked with a somewhat vicious and sarcastic grin, his arms folded on his chest and his weight on his right leg so to allow him to tilt his entire body to the side.

Goodwitch almost stomped her foot right then and there. "I am doing my job, pointing out the flaws in his combat style, but as I said, he is not ready for this level of combat," she stated sternly before she shook her head. "While now that I know of his... not sparkling with joy past... I can understand why he is not trained. But pity doesn't change anything. His stance is all wrong, and even with his improvements, he won't ever be a good fighter with a stance like that. I tried to fix it, and if I understood right my students tried to fix it as well, but he just won't learn a proper stance. What else can I do, if not try to convince him he's not cut for combat?"

Phoenix stared at her for a few more seconds before sighing deeply and dropping his stance. "I've seen many versions of you, Miss Goodwitch, but all versions of you usually fit into three categories." He drew his right hand from his pocket and held it up closed into a fist before raising his index finger. "The most common are those with a similar mindset as you. But eventually you see what Ozpin sees in him and you help him along the way." His middle finger joined the index. "The second, you hold borderline hate for him and eventually find a way to expel him. But that usually ends up terribly for everyone because instead of Beacon, a darker force is able to use his massive potential for their side." His thumb laid over his pinky to keep it down while his ring finger rose as well. "The third and least common, is the one I enjoy seeing the most. After seeing his dedication and will, you personally train him. And the result is that by the end of his first year, he is at RWBY and NPR's level. You are responsible for him becoming one of the greatest Huntsmen to graduate Beacon, all because of you. And in some cases, you see him as the son you never had." His hand lingered in the air for one more second before it dropped almost defeatedly and hid back into his pocket. His expression turned bitter. "I was kinda hoping that this you would be that one as well, the best you."

Goodwitch opened her mouth to reply, but no sound came forth. Instead, she frowned and pressed her lips back together. For a few seconds, it looked like she would speak up again, but then she sat back down on her couch, silent and apparently lost in her own thoughts.

"I'll leave you to think about what I just said," Phoenix told her as flames began to envelop his frame. "Sometimes you just need to see the alternatives in order to make the right choice."

And with those parting words, he disappeared in a bout of flames.

All eyes were fixed on Goodwitch, until Jaune cleared his throat to draw the attention on himself. "I'm not a normally snarky person," he said evenly. "But I must say that I'm not surprised it took someone even _above_ the Gods of Remnant to make her rethink her opinion. Must be something to do with blondes. First Yang, now Goodwitch. Sun, are you going next?"

"I'd prefer not, thank you," coughed the Faunus.

"Stop being a meanie," mumbled Ruby as she defiantly sat down. The `defiant` part of `defiantly` was ruined, though, as she sat down on Jaune's lap and snuggled closer to him like she usually did with Yang. "It's not funny."

Jaune snorted in amusement. "You're trying to hide a smirk."

"I'm not!" unconvincingly protested Ruby, making him chuckle. "Meanie!"

The other six students of WBY and NPR watched the scene with slight frowns of sadness for not being able to be with Jaune like Ruby was.

Ozpin, who had remained silent for quite a while now, finally spoke up. "Well, I guess seeing thousands of different universe made Phoenix quite wise," he commented. "I'd dwell on it more, but I think you should all think about it individually."

And think they did. Especially, they paid particular attention to wondering where they stood in the range of alternatives selves. Were they the best ones, or the worst ones? Were there even _good_ and _bad_ versions of them? What determined the judgement?

No one could tell, not even the Writers.

In a bout of inspiration, the screen started, tearing them away from thoughts that were just loops.

 **After Jaune and Yang explained what happened everyone had mixed reactions. Ruby felt responsible for the whole misunderstanding until Yang told her it was solely her fault. Weiss just thought the two were being irresponsible and were lucky that they didn't get punished. Blake just listened to the whole story but accepted it with a small grin, possibly enjoying the whole thing. Pyrrha was, at first, mad at Yang but when Jaune kept saying he didn't really care anymore and everything was settled, she quickly let it go. Nora was annoyed she missed the whole fight and Ren was just trying not to laugh at his brother's misfortune.**

"I'm not sure if I should laugh or pity him," commented Blake, honestly torn between her two options.

"It feels strange to see Ren acting so…" Yang searched the right word for a second. "Emotional."

"I'm not a statue, you know…" sighed the boy. "Martial arts require lots of discipline and focus. I just keep my emotions under control."

"But sometimes your mask cracks," noted Weiss, recalling a few instances where even Ren had cracked a smile.

"No one has perfect control," he shrugged.

 **After that, they all had to make their way to classes. Jaune had a hard time concentrating, due to the fact that he kept hearing people go on and on about his fight with Yang. That and also, rumors on how he took out the Boarbatusk without touching it adding to his reputation. As the day went on the rumors got more and more outrageous. By lunch, the whole school was convinced he was the most skilled first year at disposing of Grimm and he could kill any and all Grimm that he came across. And now on top of that, now there was this rumor that the fight between him and Yang was because she was jealous of Ruby winning his heart. That was just insane! He'd be lucky if one of those two amazing girls had feelings for him, let alone both. Besides, they deserved someone better, especially considering his heart was emotionally unstable when it came to romance at this point in time.**

If what Yang sported was a blush, then what Ruby sported was a red lighthouse. The girl hid her face into the chest of who she was sitting on, not realizing it was Jaune and not Yang as usual. Jaune coughed, cheeks bright pink, and looked away from the screen while most others just chuckled at the three's embarrassment. Pyrrha's smile was a little less mirthful than the others', but even she was amused by the scene.

 _'Don't think about it,'_ Jaune thought desperately. _'Don't think about it. Ruby's not a wonderful person to be with, she's not really attractive and most of all she'snotcurrentlysittingonmylap-OUMABOVEISAIDDON'TTHINKABOUTIT! And Yang… DON'T THINK ABOUT IT! Jaune Soleil Arc don't you dare think about it! Think about Dad's lame ass jokes! Think about Yang's puns! Hey… it worked!'_

 **This is why Jaune was repeatedly smacking his head on their table during lunch.**

Another bout of laughters filled the room, much to a pouting Jaune's chagrin.

 **"Jaune, stop before you give yourself a concussion." Pyrrha said worried.**

 **Jaune hit his head on last time but left his head on the table. "Can't believe it's our second day and already I'm being talked about by nearly everyone here. I was trying to stay under the radar!" he said in frustration.**

"Kinda hard with powers like those," snorted Cardin.

"Evidently all Arcs share some degree of ineptitude," chuckled Neptune.

Yang snorted a laugh. "You mean in- _Neptune_ -tude?" she asked cheekily.

Everyone groaned except for Jaune, who smirked. Not because the pun wasn't awful, it was, but because it was more or less like flipping off the blue haired boy. And since his hands were currently on Ruby's body, he couldn't do it himself.

No, you degenerates, he was just embracing her passively. Perverts.

 **"Man, I thought you'd love being in the spotlight. I mean growing up outside the Kingdoms probably left you starved for attention." Yang said half-jokingly.**

 **Not looking up Jaune continued, "I had plenty of attention, Yang. Most of it wasn't good, at all. That's one of the major reasons I hate being the center of attention." There was a small silence. "No, I don't wanna talk about it now. I'm still tired going all out against Yang. And no, that was not innuendo, Yang." He pointed over at Nora without looking up. "And no, Nora, you will not tell them later."**

"Wow, he's got a six sense for Nora," noted Neptune.

"We all have," sighed Weiss. "You need it if you want to survive her."

 **Nora pouted at that. She was already mouthing that exact thing to the others. Ren smirked at this and everyone looked at Jaune.**

 **Ruby decided to ask, "Jaune, how'd you know Nora was going to say that?"**

 **Jaune shrugged with his head still on the table. "I've known Nora far too long. I developed a six sense to her shenanigans." Just as he said that he sat up and the grape Nora threw at him just hit the table where his head once was. "See?"**

Many chuckled at that while Nora pouted.

 **Everyone just chuckled as Nora looked away sheepishly. They all went about talking normally. He realized Ruby and Weiss seemed to be doing better than before and he grinned at that. Eventually Nora starting talking about her latest dream with Ren correcting her at certain points in her tale. Jaune just sat there with his head in his hand just enjoying the break from all the hectic events of the day. That was until he heard whispering and glanced over to see people looking at him and subtly pointing at him. He just sighed in annoyance. He was about to get up and go anywhere else but Ren placed a hand on his shoulder. "It'll blow over, Jaune. Just be patient."**

 **Jaune looked up at the ceiling and sighed again, "I don't think I can deal with all this, Ren. Kinda just wanna run and hide."**

"Unfortunately that won't solve anything, not unless he wants to leave Beacon so early." Ozpin sighed deeply as he shook his head. "Fame can be useful, but most of the time it's a heavy burden."

"Ditto," agreed Pyrrha.

 **There was a clatter and he looked to see Nora drop her silverware. "You can't run away, Jaune. You're our Fearless Leader, you never run away. You didn't even when we faced the horde of Grimm that invaded that village, we ended up fighting them all."**

Weiss sighed while Blake shook her head. "Nora, you should try to keep your dreams out of serious matters," the cat Faunus scolded her.

 **Weiss chimed in, "Nora, this is seriously bothering him. I don't think bringing up one of your dreams is exactly what he needs right now."**

 **Nora looked at her slightly annoyed, "For your info, Ice Queen, that wasn't a dream. It actually happened."**

"No way," scoffed Cardin. "He might be good but a horde is a horde. And a horde means an awful lot of them."

"It _is_ a little hard to believe," nodded Yang. "Let's see how this plays out."

 **Weiss was about to say something but Jaune interrupted her. "Actually, it did." They all looked at him in shock before turning to Ren who nodded. They all turn back to Jaune. "How do you think us three got accepted into Beacon?"**

 **"We assumed you took the test like all of us." Weiss looked at Ruby for a second. "Most of us."**

 **Jaune shook his head slightly, "Nope, we're a special case like Ruby."**

 **Ruby's eyes were filled with excitement. "Can you tell us, Jaune? Please?"**

 **Jaune took out his scroll to check the time, "Looks like we have enough time. If everyone wants, I have no problem telling it." He looked and everyone seemed curious. "Alright then." He stroked his chin thinking. "I guess it starts when we left that village."**

"So we get to know of the Swordsman's past a little bit more," commented Pyrrha. "That's nice. Especially such an important event."

* * *

 _ **Jaune, Ren and Nora were making their way across the countryside, on their way back to their teacher's home village. Their home. They were a couple of days out from it and stopped at a neighbo**_ _ **u**_ _ **ring village to get a few supplies and rest for a few hours. They were a few miles away and at the top of the hill they were on, Jaune had a strange feeling that told him something was wrong. He turned to see fires all around the village and smoke coming off of some of the houses. He was staring at it in horror and soon Ren and Nora turned as well and had the same horrified expression. They could now hear the screaming of the people and the feral sounds of Grimm.**_

"Oh my…" breathed Pyrrha.

"Fuck," swore Yang. "That's brutal…"

"Well, Jauney-Jaune said we took the Grimm on, so I guess we saved the village," smiled Nora, even if she was a little less upbeat than earlier.

 _ **Jaune clenched his fists in anger. He hated Grimm, more so now considering what had happened to the three of them not long ago. And seeing them destroy this village just made his hatred run deeper.**_

 _ **Nora was the first to speak, "Can we do anything?" She looked at Ren and Jaune expectantly.**_

 _ **Ren slowly shook his head. "I don't believe we can, Nora. There's simply too many Grimm to fight." He looked back sadly before turning away. "We'd better keep moving." He started walking again. Nora looked at the village sadly then followed Ren. They walked a few more feet before they stopped and turned back around to see Jaune slowly walking back towards the village.**_

 **"** _ **Jaune? What are you doing?" Nora asked him.**_

 _ **He didn't stop or turn around. "I'm going to help those people."**_

"I already know how this is going to go," snorted Cardin. "Arc goes in, needs help, someone sacrifices themselves for him and win the battle, leaving him to take all the credit. As strong as the Swordsman can be, he's still an alternative version of Jauney Boy. He will always be a failure."

"Well, at least his alternate selves are interesting," snarked Ren. "We have been brought here by a godlike entity to watch him, not you."

Cardin bristled, but eventually held his tongue, knowing fully well it would just end poorly. For him, that is.

He was learning.

 _ **They looked at him in disbelief. "Jaune, there's too many of them. We wouldn't be able to do much." Ren tried to reason with him.**_

 _ **Jaune kept walking, "We won't know until we try."**_

 _ **Ren tried again, "Jaune…"**_

 _ **He stopped, "I have to try!" Nora and Ren jumped at that. Jaune stopped. "I'm tired of us losing everything to those damned monsters! We've lost too much and I'm done running away! I may die doing this but I'm taking as many of those hellish creatures with me!" He turned to them with a weak smile. "You two should get out of here. You shouldn't get involved in this. Take care of each other." He started to walk back to the village when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Ren and Nora standing there.**_

Ren shook his head with a bitter smile. "Oh Jaune, did you really think you could get rid of us so easily?" he asked rhetorically. "Snowball's chances in Hell."

"Yeah!" Nora chipped in. "We're with you, Fearless Leader!"

"I thought I already clarified how that title is wrong…" groaned the boy. Ruby stirred from where she was sitting and looked up at the Hammer Maiden.

"Nora, come up with a new nickname."

Nora smirked. "Yeah!" she exclaimed excitedly. "White Knight!"

"For some reason I don't like that one," frowned Weiss.

"Golden Paladin!"

Jaune sighed. "Nora, I changed my mind, call me Fearless Leader." Nora chuckled victoriously.

 **"** _ **You're right, we've lost enough and are sick of running. We're with you, Jaune.", Ren said with full conviction in his voice.**_

 _ **Nora nodded with the same conviction, "You're not getting rid of us that easily, Fearless Leader."**_

 _ **He smiled at them, "I love you two." He pulled them both into a hug. They turned around and Jaune drew Raikiri and his eyes shifted to yellow. Ren put his hand on his shoulder again and Nora took his empty hand. Jaune shot the three of them forward in a burst of lightning. All three reached the center of the village in a few minutes with Jaune slightly out of breath. The three took in their surroundings.**_

"Okay, I'll be the first to admit it, that was touching," sniffed Sun, dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief under the stares of everyone. "What? I already said I'm very emotional when watching touching scenes."

"It was quite heartwarming to see," agreed Ozpin, even though his eyes were dry. "We need more of such comradeship among our students, not less."

 _ **This village had one main road, right through the center of it. At the very center of the village had a fountain and two smaller roads extended from the town centers outwards to the left and right of the main road. The whole village was surrounded by a walkway and it had a dozen alleys that allowed**_ _ **the people to move freely throughout. Right in front of the fountain, the three saw hundreds of Grimm down the other half of the main road. Beowolves, Ursa and Boarbatusks were trying their damnedest to get to the people. Dozens of other Grimm were doing the same on the side roads. Nora and Ren turned to Jaune to see what the plan was. Jaune took all of this in and came up with the 'best' strategy at the moment.**_

"That looks really bad," winced Yang.

"I hope they will be able to handle them without serious injuries…" said Pyrrha.

 **"** _ **Nora, you pack the biggest punch, try to hold off the Grimm on the main street for as long as possible." She nodded and Jaune turned to Ren. "You and I will deal with the smaller numbers on the side roads as quickly as we can then regroup with Nora to back her up." Ren nodded as well. "Try to save as many people as possible but don't take any unnecessary risks, understand." Both nodded again. "One last thing." Jaune pointed Raikiri directly at Nora and released lightning into Nora. She used her Semblance to absorb it and became more powerful. Nora chuckled and turned to the horde of Grimm, Ren and Jaune did the same. Jaune quickly applied pressure with his left ring finger and drew Suikiri with his left hand. His eyes shifted to the darker blue and the three of them took off down their designated streets.**_

"Your Semblance is absorb lightning?" asked Yang, puzzled.

"Not exactly," giggled the gingerhead. "I can absorb any kind of electricity and convert it into energy that I can use both myself, or to channel into Maghnild."

"Neat…" said Ruby. "But then why don't you have something to charge you up all the time? I mean, something like a Dust generator to activate in combat to give you a boost."

"It would clash with my fighting style," Nora sighed as she replied. "But most of all it would be too expensive to keep up with the constant refills."

 _ **Jaune ran with Suikiri pulling the water out of the fountain. He used the large amount of water to flood the street and pushed back most of the Grimm. As they all started to charge at him again, he stabbed Raikiri into the wet ground and electrocuted the soaked Grimm. The all fell dead but a dozen still stood: five Boarbatusks, four Beowolves, two Ursai and an Ursa Major. The Boarbatusk started to roll up and gain speed to charge at him. Jaune flick Suikiri upwards and the water still on the ground threw them up into the air. His eyes shifted back to yellow and he shot forward in a burst of lightning and managed to kill the Beowolves before his blade got stuck in one of the Ursai. The Ursa started to thrash about as the second came towards him. Jaune pointed Suikiri at its head and fired a pressurized water blast, knocking it off balance. Jaune planted Suikiri into the ground than applied pressure with his left middle finger and drew Kakiri, his eyes shifted to red and he used his strength to slam the impaled Ursa into its brethren. Once he did, he swung upwards with Kakiri and set them both ablaze.**_

"Wow…" breathed Ruby.

"He's wasting Dust, though," commented Blake. "Using so much will just leave him with less later."

"I disagree," replied Jaune, tapping his chin. "It's true that Kakiri and Raikiri, Fire and Lightning, are probably his `best` swords for direct approach, and thus using all their Dust could be a waste, but thinning out the number of Grimm immediately would both grant a safer escape to the Grimm and leave less to fight later. Think of him as a minigun with a limited amount of bullets. You can save them for later, or you can use them all immediately to thin out the enemy ranks. Plus, he doesn't just fight with Dust. Those are still functioning swords."

"Good evaluation, Mr Arc," nodded Ironwood. "Although we can't say for sure which strategy is the best one until we see the results of both."

 _ **As he pulled Raikiri free he fell to his knee and his eyes went back to normal, he was suffering from 'Elemental Backlash'. Before he knew it, the Ursa Major was swinging its paw down onto him. He somehow managed to roll out of the way. Jaune forced himself to kick off the ground and impaled the Ursa Major in the side and started to paralyze it with Raikiri's electricity. The Ursa was slowed down enough for Jaune to recover enough to absorb the fire dust again. With his eyes crimson again, his strength returned and he swung Kakiri and sliced off its head. He pulled Raikiri free and sheathed Kakiri. He went over to Suikiri and pulled it from the ground.**_

"How can you paralyse with electricity?" asked Ruby, surprised. Yang, Blake, Nora and Ren all had confused and curious faces. Pyrrha held her own curiosity in check even though she was intrigued as well. Weiss was the one to answer.

"It's a particular type of paralysis," she explained. "The body is so full of energy, the brain is so overwhelmed with signals from its nerves, that it simply can't send orders to the muscles. Usually, during such a paralysis, one can only feel pain, because even thoughts are hard to put together."

"More or less like during orgasm," belched Qrow. "Brain's overwhelmed."

"QROW!"

 _ **Jaune caught movement and saw the people in their houses, he turned to them. "This is your chance. Take the side road and circle around the village to the south. It's Grimm free and your best chance to escape." The people just stared at him in a mix of shock, awe and most of all, fear. Same as always. At this point the Boarbatusks hit the ground. He turned and saw them rise, injured but still alive. Jaune's eyes shifted to the darker blue as he started making a circular motion with Suikiri. "Go now! I'll hold them off! Go!" The command in his voice and the water forming a circular shield in front of him, galvanized them to run. The Boarbatusks charged again and when they were close, Jaune pulled back and plunged Suikiri into the center of the water. Instantly it separated into dozens of compressed water pellets and were fired off at the Grimm. They were shredded and stopped a few feet in front of Jaune.**_

"Wow!" cheered Sun. "That's what I call fighting!"

"His Semblance is really versatile," mumbled Jaune. "I wonder what mine is."

"Is it clear?" sneered Cardin. "Being an utter failure."

"Or maybe being awful with the ladies," added Neptune, slicking his hair back. `Slicking` because only then he remembered the oily situation he was in. He groaned as he produced a handkerchief from his pocket to clean his hand off.

"I don't even know what I saw in you," grumbled Weiss.

"You were probably exasperated by my attempts to court you and wanted a `breath of fresher air` or something like that," shrugged Jaune. "You didn't even know him, it's hard to tell what did you see in him."

"Well, I bet Jaune's Semblance is gonna be something awesome!" smiled Sun. "Maybe… oh, I know! Resurrection! Or even just healing, it's still cool! Or… Aura manipulation!"

"Sun, shut up," sighed Blake.

 _ **At this point, Suikiri was out of dust and Jaune used this time to catch his breath. He sheathed Suikiri and Raikiri as he was making his way back to the town center. He looked to see Ren finishing off his Grimm and Nora was still somehow holding off the bulk of the horde. He was about to join her when he heard screeching, he looked up to see Nevermores and Griffons circling above. Jaune jumped on top of the fountain and drew Fukiri. As his body lightened and his eyes turned light green, he jumped on top of the tallest building. He crouched and started forming a cyclone around his legs, he jumped and flew past the aerial Grimm. He whistled while going upwards. The Grimm took notice of this and followed him. At the top of his jump, he turned to face them and swung his sword in a series of slashes. As one was done, another was already started. He sent numerous wind blades at the Grimm and sliced them to ribbons. There was only one large Nevermore left and Jaune formed another cyclone around his legs as he angled towards it. He fired off again and impaled it in the chest. The impact was hard enough that he tore clean through it. He used a gust of wind to slow himself down and gently touched down in the town center.**_

For a second no one said anything, too overwhelmed by the sheer badassery and awesomeness of the action. And then everyone…

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuck…"

Ruby, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Pyrrha and Ozpin were the only ones to contain themselves. Three of them because they had too much control over their emotions. Nora simply because she didn't feel the necessity to. Ruby because she didn't like swearing. And Jaune because his mother would kill him if she found out he had cursed like that.

 _ **As he did, Ren ran up to him. "I got all the people on my side to evacuate."**_

 _ **Jaune nodded, "Same on my end." They looked over to Nora and she was beginning to falter. "She needs another boost. Let's go!" Jaune shifted Fukiri to his left hand and drew Raikiri again. He shot off in a burst of lightning next to Nora and pushed the Grimm back with a large gust of wind to get them some breathing room. He turned to Nora, "You okay?"**_

 _ **She nodded, slightly out of breath. "Yeah. Just tired. And down to my last explosives."**_

 _ **Jaune held Raikiri out to her, "I still have half my lightning dust, think you can still handle it?"**_

 _ **Nora looked down at it than back at Jaune and nodded. She placed her hand on the flat of the blade and absorbed the last of Raikiri's lightning. "Whoa! Talk about a pick me up!" She said cheerily. Next thing they knew Ren was jumping over them and opening fire onto the Grimm. Nora took off after him and Jaune sheathed his now empty Raikiri. Shifting Fukiri back to his right hand, Jaune drew Dokiri and charged after them.**_

"Well, that's surely handy," commented Yang. "Being able to recharge someone's powers so easily…"

"If only we had someone who could recharge our energies…" sighed Weiss.

Somewhere in the Multiverse, thousands of Jaune Arcs sneezed.

 _ **It was half an hour later and they were on their last legs. Nora was completely out of explosives and her Semblance ran out long ago. Ren was out of bullets as well and took a nasty cut to the leg that had him limping. Jaune had to resort to using all three of his remaining swords, keeping one in the ground while using the other two. They were forced further and further back, they were now at the beginning of the main road and the hundred remaining Grimm were in the village center. They all shared a look, one of fear and acceptance. But it was replaced with determination, they may die but it would be with each other. They turned to the Grimm and charged, Jaune reached to swap Fukiri for Dokiri and as he did, he felt something different. As the three elemental energies were temporary inside of him, he felt something new form. Something powerful. It was a small chance but he had to take it to save them.**_

"Something tells me the Swordsman still has an ace not even he was aware of," noted Ozpin.

Goodwitch stared at him flatly. "That's basically what it said."

"Three elements?" asked Jaune, frowning. "But like, an Advanced Element and a normal one used at the same time, or a three-component new element?"

"We'll find out soon enough," noted Pyrrha.

 **"** _ **Ren, Nora, I need time!" They didn't look back. They trusted Jaune. Fully. He impaled all three swords in front of him and held his hands out to them. He started to slowly absorb the dust from them and started to mix them. He felt pain like none he ever felt before, like at any moment he'd be torn apart but kept pushing. He needed this power to save everyone. With all his will and determination this new power emerged, he didn't even hesitate to run forward. "You two, get back!" They turned to see Jaune, his aura shifting between red, light green and brown rapidly and his eyes a mix of those same three colors. The two jumped back as he ran forward. As he was only a few feet away from the Grimm, something instinctual took over. He slammed his fist into the ground as it was glowing white. As soon as he did, two lines ran across the ground at a 45-degree angle. When they were exactly the right distance the lines converged on each other to form a perfect triangle that encompassed the village center and the Grimm. The three points of the triangle shot into the air and formed a pyramid and as it completed, the faces of it became a translucent white, trapping the Grimm. That all happened in a matter of seconds. Any Grimm that touched it started to burn and** **evaporating.**_

"That seems really powerful, but for how long will he be able to keep up the barrier?" asked Sun. "It seems difficult to maintain."

"The Grimm are mindless, they will probably kill themselves by trying to reach them," noted Ren.

"I think they've won," nodded Jaune.

 **"** _ **Wow! Jaune, how'd you do that?!" Nora asked.**_

 **"** _ **I'm not sure but it's time to end this." He said with every ounce of conviction he had. He stood up with his hand still glowing. He squeezed it and as he did, the faces turned a brilliant white that blinded them all. As the light disappeared, so did everything inside of it. The Grimm, the fountain, parts of the buildings, all of it. They were all in shock, Jaune fell to the ground exhausted. Nora and Ren made their way over to him and did the same. "Well, we did it." Was all he said before the three started laughing. They held each other close and started to cry tears of joy and relief.**_

There was a second moment of silence. And then, just like last time…

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck…"

This time even Ren and Pyrrha joined the stupefied chorus. Ozpin's mug shook in his grip, a bit of coffee sloshing out, as he violently flinched in surprise.

"How did he…?" asked Yang.

"I have no idea," admitted the Headmaster.

"Was that a three-component element?" wondered Blake.

"It wasn't composed by three colours," noted Ren. "It was pure white. Just like Ice was pure pale azure instead of blue and green. I think it's safe to assume that was a three-component element."

"Except that it wasn't something related to Fire, Air and Earth," noted Jaune. "It was a completely different element. Light, maybe? Or Energy?"

"Well, it could've been related to them," said Weiss. "Earth because it formed a solid wall, Fire because it burned the Grimm on contact and Air because the walls could float even though seemingly made of light, that can't stay in one place for long."

"Hardlight, maybe?" offered Winter. "Not like I've ever heard of but it's his Semblance. Some kind of powerful hardlight?"

"We can add it to the list of possible answers," admitted Ironwood.

* * *

 **"After that, we eventually made it back to our home and not long after that, Ozpin showed up and offered us a spot at Beacon. We accepted and that's how it happened." He took a sip of his water and then looked at his friends. Saying they were shocked was an understatement. Ruby was looking at them like they were the heroes at the end of a movie, Weiss looked at them with her mouth open in disbelief, Blake had an unreadable look on her face but her eyes were as wide as they could get, Yang had a look of shock but with something else he didn't recognize, the look made him very nervous. He turned to Pyrrha, who was now looking at him like she's never seen him before.**

"Yang, why are you looking at him like you're gonna ride him until he's dry?" asked Qrow, much to the two blonds' embarrassment.

"Qrow!" she sputtered. "It's not like that! The other me just wants to fight him again!"

Blake coughed into her fist. "Yeah, sure," she said.

"Should we talk about what kind of books I found into my nieces' dorm, all `Property of Blake Belladonna`, when I dropped by last time?" asked Qrow.

"You visited?" asked Ruby.

"You were out and I was passing by Ozpin's office," he shrugged. "So, Ms Former Member of the White Fang?"

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Cardin, shocked and angry.

Blake stiffened, and so did Jaune. Ruby quickly threw her hands between the two. "Can we keep this for later?" she pleaded. She knew it was impossible to stop the argument but at least she wanted to try and hold it off for a bit more.

Jaune's eyes flashed and his Aura flared before he pressed his lips together and nodded tensely. His eyes, though, never left Blake's bow.

Ren, Nora and Pyrrha all stared at her with disbelief, but Yang glared at Qrow with red eyes. "Why did you say that?!" she asked, furious.

"Because she needs to face the consequences of her actions, and because she needs to stop running away from them," he replied curtly. "She's run away from home when she disagreed with her parents. She's run away from the Fang when she had trouble with them. And she's run away from you when she thought you were going to have issues. She needs to stop it now."

Blake sank deeper and deeper in her couch at every word, and she couldn't meet anyone's eyes. Ironwood was glaring at her alongside Winter, while Ozpin and Goodwitch sighed.

 **"Wow." That was all Ruby could say.**

 **"Took the words out of my mouth, Sis." Yang responded.**

 **"This whole thing seems a bit unbelievable. Sounds like one of Nora's dreams. No offense." Weiss said in disbelief but not in a negative way.**

 **Jaune just smirked. "Nora?" he turned to her.**

 **"On it, Jaune!" she was already on her scroll looking for something. When she found it she turned her scroll for everyone to see. It was a video showing Jaune kneeling with his fist on the ground, in front of a light pyramid with Grimm trapped inside. Then they heard Nora's voice come through. "Wow! Jaune, how'd you do that?!" Jaune was rising with his hand still glowing while saying, "I don't know but it's time to end this." He squeezed his hand and the pyramid started glowing bright white, illuminating Jaune like an angelic figure before the screen was completely white. When the picture was back, there was nothing left of the Grimm and Jaune had fell to the ground. That's when the video ended.**

 **They all looked at Jaune, who had a smirk. "See, video-graphic proof."**

 **"I stand corrected." Weiss stated.**

 **"So, Jaune, what was that?" Ruby asked shaking with excitement.**

 **Jaune shrugged, "I'm not exactly sure. That has been the only time I've done it and trust me, I've tried to do it again."**

 **"Too bad. That would come in handy." Yang said with a wink.**

 **Jaune nodded, "True but the aftereffects are way worse though."**

 **"What do you mean, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked with concern.**

 **Before he could respond the bell rang. "Sorry, that'll have to wait until after class." he said with a grin. He got up and made his way to the exit, followed by Ren and Nora. The five girls stared at each other before racing after them.**

"What aftereffects was he talking about?" asked Weiss.

"Don't know and don't care," snapped Jaune, gently but firmly removing Ruby from his midriff and walking up to Blake. Once he was standing in front of her, he folded his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. Cardin looked like he wanted to join him but restrained himself. "So, what was that, Blake?"

Blake looked away and Yang decided to step in… "Blake once was a member…"

"I DIDN'T ASK YOU, YANG!" shouted Jaune, snapping toward her with rage, and all the ones standing nearby flinched. "I WANT TO HEAR IT FROM HER!"

Silence fell over them as Blake squirmed uncomfortably under his glare. She could beat him ten times over with ease, and yet she was now the prey. The irony, though, was lost to her. "I was once a member of the Fang," she murmured.

But Jaune wasn't having any of that. "Speak up, Blake. We're not all Faunus terrorists, I can't hear you."

Blake winced at the jab but steeled herself. She had thought Weiss would've been the hardest one to talk about the Fang with. Instead the bigger problem had come to the one she less expected to cause problems. Ironic, since she now knew that Jaune was a Faunus himself. "I was once a member of the White Fang," she stated before biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed. Aura couldn't prevent from self-inflicted injuries, only heal them. "It wouldn't be incorrect to say that I was born in it. My parents were White Fang activists before it turned how it is now. My father even was the leader before he stepped down five years ago."

"A new leader, Sienna Khan, took his place. A new leader, with new methods. Instead of peaceful protests, Sienna organized attacks and boycotts against shops and companies that didn't uphold the new laws for Faunus equality. Thefts and armed occupation took the place of protests and manifestations." Blake hung her head in shame and sighed. "And yet, with violent methods, Faunus got more recognition and equality than with peaceful ones. But not because of civility… because of the fear those attacks caused."

Jaune's eyes hardened, but he allowed her to continue.

"But that's not the end of it. The leader of the Vale branch of the Fang… Adam Taurus…" Leather creaked as Jaune closed his hands into fists, his mouth twisting down in a snarl. "Was different, and not in a good way. At first I followed him because his methods were getting even more results than Sienna's. We stole and damaged property of racist companies… I thought it was justified. But then one day during one of such thefts Adam wanted to kill everyone on the train we were on."

Weiss and Winter frowned, remembering what train she was speaking about.

"I didn't want any part in it. I refused to kill innocent people," continued the Faunus. "So I left. I detached part of the train from the rest and left the White Fang for good. Adam swore to get revenge, he's my enemy now."

"Why didn't you stop him?"

"Huh?" Blake looked up to see Jaune's furious expression. "What?"

"Why didn't you stop him?" he repeated in a hiss. "Backstabbing. You could've just sunk your sword into his throat from behind. He trusted you, he wouldn't have expected that. Instead of fleeing like a damn coward, why didn't you kill him?"

Blake's, and everyone else's, eyes went wide. "K-Kill him?!" she exclaimed, outraged. "I'm not a murderer!"

"Well, what is better?" continued the blond. "Not kill him and run like a coward, or kill him and prevent him from killing maybe hundreds more people?!"

Blake opened her mouth to reply, but instead let out a frustrated sigh. "Violence doesn't solve anything!"

"So what you're implying is that we should let the White Fang run free, because for every one of them we kill, a hundred others will be inspired by his martyrdom. For every one of them we put into prison, fifty others will be inspired by his willingness to face jail for the Race! Fore every one of them we stop from killing someone, ten others will be outraged that we dared to stop the Voice of Justice! Is this what you're implying!? So, we should simply let them do whatever they wish just to avoid angering them further?!"

"I'm not saying that!" shouted Blake.

"Well, than you have a very strange way of showing what you mean!" Jaune shouted back. "Because what I see is a coward who fled when she could've taken action, a hypocrite who pretended to be blind to her leader's actions, and an idiot who thought violence was the best way to get equality!"

"It was the only way that worked!" snapped the girl.

"NO, IT WASN'T!" he screamed at her face. "Do you want to know how my father died?! In our hometown, Orlén, we had Faunus equality! But then the local SDC shop changed manager into a damn racist! We were protesting to the mayor to get him fired and another one hired! And guess what, the mayor spoke with the SDC delegate and the manager was fired! But what happened to the protest!? Do you know what happened?!"

Blake flinched and tried to lean back as Jaune stormed over to her couch. "The White Fang showed up. They were from Vale, clean and impeccable in their uniforms, masks and weapons. They saw the protest and asked questions. And do you know what happened when they got their answers?" The boy released her and stomped over to the middle of the room, turning back to her but acting as if speaking to a crowd.

"`Brothers and sisters!` they said, `Why are you begging humans to uphold the laws?! They won't ever listen to you, and that's why Faunus should never bow to the human filth like that!` And when the protestants booed them and told them to leave, they took over a more serious approach." Jaune's eyes were literally glowing with Aura. "`Faunuskind does not need cowards like you! Cowards and human lovers! I can see humans amongst you, how is that?! Have you fallen so far that you asked the human filth for support?! If that's the case, then this town is in need of a purge!` And then you know what they did?"

Blake was trembling at that point, eyes wide in abject terror. Not fear of Jaune… fear of hearing what he had to say.

"They had weapons. We didn't. Oh, there were a few Hunstman amongst us… but so there were amongst them. I wouldn't call it a clash of two forces, two crowds facing off each other…" Jaune stopped and glared at her. During his last sentence, Blake had seemingly relaxed ever so slightly. "I'd call it a one-sided slaughter."

And just like that, Blake stiffened again.

"Not like no one of us made it out of there alive, I wouldn't say that," continued the boy. "The White Fang merely began firing on the crowd. Not even really dangerous bullets like Aura Pierce or explosives. Just blasted lots of them. And when the two or three Huntsmen amongst us tried to protect the crowd and, I'll admit it, retaliate, their own entered into action."

Done with his impromptu performance, he walked back to Blake. "My father was among the ones who tried to fight back. Then the leader of that group walked forth, dressed in black with a black scabbard and horns, and red-brown hair. Then the world went red. Literally." Blake's eyes grew wide as he mentioned Adam's Semblance, Moonslice as he called it. "His whole body turned black except for the red accents, that glowed. Then he drew his katana and in a single hit, he beheaded my father."

There was no gasp, and no one flinched. They had all expected it.

"Wanna know what happened next?" continued Jaune. "I ran forwards, foolish and hurting, with my sword and shield. He laughed and disarmed me. Then he decided to make me the example." He loosened the straps of his chestplate and let it fall to the ground. No one laughed at the Pumpkin Pete hoodie. He grabbed the hem. "While a pair of his grunts held me still, he turned to the crowd and told them to pay attention. Then… he sliced off my wings, and set the stumps on fire."

He pulled the hoodie up and off and turned, giving them a full view of his back.

The skin of his lower back was untouched. And that was it. Two almost unnoticeable stumps on his shoulder blades were the only remains of what once were beautiful white wings, now darkened and burnt. The majority of his back sported scars from extreme temperatures, the skin tortured by the fire and burnt. Unlike the stumps, the back had healed a little better and it was just much paler than the unblemished skin instead of straight-out white. The skin was rough and uneven, the more the nearer it was to the stumps, and the scarred tissue spread over almost his entire back.

No gasps again. This time, because they were too horrified to make any sort of sound. Ruby, Pyrrha and Nora had tears in their eyes. Ren had his own screwed shut and his head facing slightly away from him, a single tear on the corner of his left eye. Weiss had a hand covering her mouth, in equal parts to prevent herself from screaming and to stop the bile she already felt rising from her throat. Yang was white and stumbled back, not even caring when she tripped and fell on the ground.

Cardin, Neptune and Sun all had different reactions. Cardin paled significantly and felt his hands burn for every time he had given Jaune a `friendly` pat on his back, horrified at the idea of having touched such a brutal scar. Neptune had to lean on the couch to avoid falling over. Sun was the worst off, having to clench his mouth shut as he felt the vomit spill from his throat and having to force the disgusting liquid back down.

Among the adults it gathered less reactions, since they were already used to see scars and reminders of horrible brutalities, but even they were disturbed by seeing a boy so young wearing one so atrocious. Goodwitch particularly felt sick for having berated the boy so harshly. She could now see why he wanted to be a Huntsman, to prevent something like that from happening ever again, and she could see he would forever wear a reminder of why he fought. Whether he wanted to get revenge or to give protection, she didn't know, but she knew why he fought, and that was a small step, but a step nonetheless.

Jaune remained turned for a second before slipping his hoodie and armour back on. "The inhuman but admittedly quick cauterization probably saved my life," he continued steely. "Hadn't he been cruel enough to set me on fire, I would've bled out. The wings are an important part of the cardiovascular system. Having them severed could've killed me either by blood loss or by shock trauma. In his own way, he saved my life that day." He was back before Blake.

The cat Faunus had conflicting emotions warring to get a hold of her, too many to count. She was in a world of pain at hearing and seeing what her friends had gone through, so much she physically felt pain even with her Aura. She didn't want to believe that the White Fang would've ever done something like that but she had proof, and deep down she knew the truth. They were misguided, sure, but misguided stopped being an excuse when the first victim was killed. After that, they were murderers.

But what upset her the most was to know that Adam had turned a new leaf years earlier than she'd thought. She thought she had broken up with him as soon as he'd become a monster but one didn't become a killer overnight. She should've known that he had been far too comfortable with the idea of killing everyone on that train. He had to have killed before.

She just couldn't have known she'd met one of his victims, nor she could've known his crimes had been so flagitious.

Jaune glared at her for a few more seconds before he huffed and turned away. Before he reached the door, though, he was met with something white. Or rather someone.

"Weiss, this is not the time…" he sighed.

"I know," she said. "I'm just coming with you. I may not know what you felt but I hold similar resentment toward the White Fang, resentment that won't be quelled just because one lone girl says they're misguided and not criminals."

Jaune's eyes darted back to the shrunken and shaking form of Blake before he snorted, not even bothering with a comment. The viewing surely hadn't gone like he'd expected, nor how he'd wished for it to go. "And so?"

"And so I'm coming with you," she defiantly replied. "End of the story. And in case you don't want me to tag along I will, as Yang would say, `kick your ass` until you see reason."

The two glared each other down until Jaune snorted again, this time in amusement. "Ice Queen much," he commented as he stepped around her and continued for the door, this time with SDC heiress in tow.

"Dolt much more," she countered as the two exited the room.

Leaving behind a bunch of horrified students, a handful of shaken adults, and Blake, who was now desperately crying in her hands, sobbing unintelligible begs for forgiveness.

No one answered her pleas.

 ** _Correction, in 4 minutes I gotta hit the road._**

 ** _Anyway as I said this chapter is pretty dark, but we all knew it was bound to happen. One does not become a terrorist and then expect no consequences. And as Qrow said she should stop running away (how does he know? He's Ozpin's lackey, guys). So now Jaune's really pissed but at least he'll bond with Weiss. Probably badmouthing the White Fang but that's what friends are for! They're here to help you insult a terrorist organization that killed your father and mutilated you, no?_**

 ** _And for all the ones who think this is too dark, well, I warned you. I have a few rules for my readers. 1) You don't like it, don't read it. 2) If it's dark and you read it nonetheless, don't complain. 3) If you didn't like it, there's no need to go on reading it and complain all along. 3) Dark is my style, don't read my stories if you don't like dark. Extension of the Soul will be humour with a couple of serious notes but mainly just fun. Go read that once I publish it._**

 ** _Urgh, only 1 minute, gotta run! Bye!_**

 ** _Wait! There's this Omake I must publish. This is an EDIT, by the way. And this Omake has been inspired by/suggested in a conversation with TheDisplacerOfEquestrias in PM. If you want to chat, I'm always here! I really like to chat with others, plus talking usually gives nice inspiration. Anyway, here's the Omake! (takes place at the start of the chapter)_**

 ** _TITLE: GOODWITCH SHOULD BE CALLED JUSTBITCH, AND PEOPLE HAVE NOTICED._**

...But before the screen could lit up, a large flame appeared in the middle of the room.

They expected Phoenix to appear but they were surprised. Instead of the flame-themed Writer, a plain grey Scroll landed in the middle of the room, active and functioning.

Was it fate that Goodwitch picked it up? No. Was it a coincidence? No. Was it a complicated, random mathematical calculation that made her pick it up instead of someone else? No again.

The truth was that it had been the houseowner's willpower to make her pick it up. Simple as that. It had already been said that Vlakha Naroak and everything in it bend to the will of the owner.

Goodwitch picked up the device, oblivious to whatever had made her pick it up. She was just a mere mortal, after all. She also frowned when she noticed two unread messages and tapped it to open them. Again, it wasn't fate nor anything. It was the Houseowner Who Won't Be Mentioned. The first message was simple enough. It just read.

 _"To Goodwitch: listen to the following audio recording. Signed Someone Who Noticed Your Bitchiness."_

The woman had of course bristled and made to set the device aside, but something had instead urged her to press the Play button of the recording. She would later say it was her curiosity, but... you know the truth.

The matter was that she pressed the button.

Immediately, a deep-accented robotic voice came through the speakers, too loud to have been produced by the Scroll's tiny speakers. She couldn't recognize the accent, but to anyone from Earth (Solar System, Milky Way, incidentally also Khor's home planet) would've been able to tell it was Russian, and it was pretty heavy Russian too. An Earthling would've also been able to say it had American accents as well... but mainly Russian. But no one needed to be an Earthling to notice the anger in the voice.

"Ты сука лживой шлюхи! Как вы смеете сказать, что Jaune Arc не заслуживает быть в Beacon! Когда я доберусь туда, я, Displacer, покажу вам, почему никто не должен терпеть мой гнев! И вы никогда не сможете скрыться от моего гнева!"

Obviously, Goodwitch did not understand what the voice had just said, but the message wasn't over.

"Translation:" continued the voice, this time in English. "You bitch of a lying whore! How dare you say that Jaune Arc does not deserve to be in Beacon! When I get there, I, Displacer, will show you why no one should tolerate my anger! And you can never escape from my anger! And this is but a taste of my wrath, you bitch! Have at thee!"

"Why," she asked slowly. "Am I hated by so many people for just doing my job?"

No sooner than the words had left her mouth, an old shoe appeared out of nowhere and smacked her on the forehead, making her stumble. The impact was so hard the plastic SMACK echoed in the room like thunder. The voice then finished what it had to say.

"For Jaune Arc! Eat a dick, you blonde bimbo of a dominatrix! Nobody insults my favorite student of Beacon!"

The stern professor crushed the scroll in her hands, fury on her face. ""What the hell..."

She couldn't finish as another flame appeared in the middle of the room, followed by another Scroll with two more unread messages.

Goodwitch screamed.

 ** _Heya! This Omake was pretty funny to write. And yes, I control everything that happens in Vlakha Naroak. So if you're not getting the pairing you like, it's because my undefeatable will forced them not to like each other. I'm evil like that._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	12. Chapter 11

**_And here I am with yet another chapter. Sorry for the delay but *stop pulling my arm!* Sorry, that was my little brother. He's been trying to smash his hand on my keyboard for hours now. The ones among you who have a little brother understand. I just spent 40 minutes watching after him. Literally: between this last sentence and the one before that my brother dragged me downstairs to play Smash (you take two toys and hurl them across the room, more or less one against the other. It's very fun for him...)._**

 ** _Anyway here's the chapter at last..._**

When Jaune returned with Weiss, no one really knew what to do.

Ruby slowly and tentatively tried to return to the position the two of them had been in during the previous meeting, sitting on Jaune's lap, but even if he allowed she couldn't forget the sight of what laid underneath his hoodie.

The others were uncomfortable and nervous, no one more so than Pyrrha.

The redhead champion wanted nothing more than to try and fix bridges with Jaune, but at the same time she was incredibly scared of making it worse. She didn't know how to approach him and she didn't know how he would react to her approach. At the moment he seemed to accept Ruby's closeness and Weiss's not-as-close vicinity, but after what happened earlier, she doubted he would be in an accepting mood anytime soon.

Ren and Nora alike were fine with giving him space, but both of them knew that too much space would end up being harmful for him. Fortunately Ruby and Weiss seemed to be staying close enough, but both the ninja and the hammer wished they could do something more. Wished they could bethere for him instead of having to rely on others.

Yang was torn. A small part of herself wanted to get angry at Jaune and tell him that it wasn't Blake's fault, but a much larger part didn't want to make it even worse. She knewJaune was right in not liking the White Fang, but she knewjust as well that he shouldn't have lashed out like that at Blake.

Blake, on the other hand, was torn by very different emotions. She was outraged to have been blamed for the crimes of the entire White Fang, sure, but that was a minor part of her mind. A much larger part couldn't help but wonder if she should've really killed Adam that night. If she could'vekilled him. He was far stronger than herself, she wasn't sure she'd be able to kill him even with the surprise factor. A tiny part of her was even happy that at least Jaune had vented, even if she wished it hadn't been on her.

And finally there were three other people.

Ironwood was more than angry, he was furiousas he stalked toward Blake. He knew Ozpin had faults but to accept a terrorist?That crossed a line. He couldn't have her arrested or detained, but as sure as Oum he could keep her under surveillance until he could arrest her. Especially because instead of explaining, she had said nothing. He wasn't a normally angry person, but the girl hadn't even denied of having taken part of the raids of the Fang!

Winter was angry as well, but it was on a more personal level. Despite having cut ties with her father, she was still a Schnee, and she perfectly knew that her family and their business was the White Fang's favourite one. All because of some ghost Faunus exploit that had never been proved. She couldn't control how her managers and leaders acted in shops and mines, but the wages were equal. Low, maybe, but equal for both humans and Faunus. The only reason why the Faunus accepted to work in the mines was because basically every other business in Atlas refused to hire them. Sure, Atlas itself might've been accused of racism and abuse over Faunus, but the SDC itself couldn't be blamed. The wages were low but equal. If Faunus accepted to work there, they had accepted willingly.

Cardin's anger was similar to Winter's, but even greater. He hadn't started off as a racist nor did he come from a racist family. The opposite, actually. The Winchester had even taken part of a few protests for Faunus rights. But in one of those protests the White Fang had decided to show up and ruin everything. They killed a man, who he now knew had been Jaune's father, as they rained light bullets on the crowd. His father, Jackson Winchester, had protected as many civilians as he could, but a stray bullet had still managed to hit his little sister, who was four at the time. It didn't kill her, but it did blind her permanently. Needless to be said, his family had turned a new leaf that very day, starting with ignoring the Faunus boy the White Fang had literally set on fire. And now he was seeing a member of the White Fang attempting to cover up what the Fang had done. His blood boiled as he too stormed toward Blake, even if he was physically stopped by Yang.

Three powerful knocks at a door they hadn't even known was there stopped them all.

As they turned, they could hear an unknown voice on the other side. "After you, Phoenix."

"Thanks," replied Phoenix's now familiar voice as the door opened to allow the Writer to step in. He was exactly like they remembered, but this time he brought with him a large tea kettle, the old typenot the electrical one, and a tray with sugar, milk, a few spoons and a few tea cups. He calmly walked up to Blake and set the tray and the kettle down on the coffee table, automatically turning it into a tea table. "Guys, I'd like to introduce you to someone you have yet to meet. Khorevis, if you would?"

"I'm here," replied the voice from before as the man stepped into the room. He was shorter than Phoenix, more or less standing between Yang and Blake in height, with shoulder-length hair that seemed to have not seen a brush in years, and peculiar silver eyes with purple shards in them. His face was marred by four claw marks on the right side of his face and a large, horrible scar running all the way down the right side of his face, from forehead to chin, passing through his right eye and splitting his lips, even though it hadn't blinded him. All the five scars were of an unnatural dark violet colour, and web-like purple cracks spread on the skin around them. He was dressed in a dark violet shirt with a long-sleeved black Gothic tailcoatjacket over it, the hood pulled down. A black scarf tied loosely around his neck and black trousers completed the look. His armour was composed by a black chestplate that reached down to his stomach, two gauntlets/bracers hybridsthat ended in a spike over the elbow, and boots/greaves hybrids that ended similarly over the knee. Like Phoenix, he too was armed, his sword being a long and slightly curved silver longsword on his back, one of its edges serrated while the other sharpened. He walked into the room with the caution but easiness of a trained assassin in a familiar environment. "My name is Khorevis Argento. It's a pleasure to meet you."

A few tentative greetings were offered by the Watchers as well. They hadn't met many Writers, just Phoenix to tell the truth, but they weren't exactly sure they should trust someone who dressed and moved like a trained assassin. Phoenix sensed their unease and explained. "He is our houseowner," he said as he pointed to the now sitting man. "While we both come from another dimension where Remnant doesn't really exist, we can also summon alternative versions of ourselves to wander other worlds. He is an alternative version of the houseowner, one born and lived in an alternative Remnant."

Ruby tilted her head sideways. "Writers can have alternative versions?" she asked.

"It's not a surprise you don't know, given how you have no experience in the art of Wandering," this time it was Khorevis the one who replied. "Writers are still people. What you see is actually the willof us Writers, not our original body. And as people, yes we do have alternative versions."

Phoenix smiled slightly as most of the Watchers nodded in understanding before his smile faded off and he turned to Blake, pouring a cup of tea and handing it to the girl. "Here, this should help."

The Writer grabbed a chairand placed it on the opposite side of the tea table, sitting down and looking at Blake straight in the eyes. "I know how you're feeling right now, Blake, but honestly, the regret you're feeling is a good thing. After all the mistakes you've made, if you didn't feel some kind of regret then you'd be just as bad as Sienna and Adam. And just to state the obvious, you aren't to blame for any of this." She made to protest, but he raised a hand to stop her."Sienna was the one that made the Fang violent, not you. Adam has pushed the envelope further, not you. And just because you have history with him, doesn't mean it was your responsibility to stop him. Honestly, if you did, you probably would've been killed. And I doubt anyone here would've wanted that. Jaune included."

Blake looked down at that, but this time she didn't protest, nor did she reply. Phoenix nodded before turning to glare at Qrow. "And you. I understand why you did that, Qrow, but you had no right to do so. It was her secret to tell and it should've been on her terms." Phoenix's eyebrow rose as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Besides, you too have a few secrets you don't want anyone to know. Especially, your nieces. I'd keep that in mind from now on." The Writer held the Huntsman's gaze for a bit longer before finally nodding, satisfied with his light threat, and relaxed back into the couch.

"She's a criminal, and you're all so ready to forgive her that easily?!" shouted Ironwood, shocked that even the Writers seemed not to really care about Blake's past. They treated her like she had flaws and faults, sure, but not as she should've treated, in his opinion.

"Yeah, that's kind of the differencebetween a good person and an asshole, you know?" snarked Khorevis, sipping from a cup of tea he had probably conjured when no one was looking. He wanted to keep Phoenix's tea for Blake, after all.

"And what about the fact she was in the Fang?" growled Cardin, aggressively thrusting his chest out to appear more intimidating. It didn't intimidate anyone, even less so the Writers. "What about it?! Once a terrorist, always a terrorist."

"I have more reasons than you do to hate the Fang, and yet you don't see meaccusing her," shrugged the man.

"More reason?!" At this point, Jaune had joined the argument, much to the students's despair, especially Blake's. "How about seeing your father die and being maimed just because the Fang didn't like how peaceful you were being?!"

"Well, how about seeing both yourparents being brutally murdered by the White Fang, being in coma for more than a month and waking up to find that all yourlimbs had been so severely damaged they had to be cut off and replaced with prosthetics?" countered Khorevis, removing his right gauntlets to show the mechanical hand underneath, black with violet accents. Then he tapped his knee and a metallic sound echoed slightly in the room, loud enough to make them flinch. He wore back the gauntlets with a satisfied expression. "All because yourfather was a Faunus assassin who refused to join the White Fang in their `fight for freedom`, and your mother was a human. How's that as a motivation to hate the Fang?"

Blake's tears had appeared again, but his little speech had stopped everyone else. "The questions are: do I hate the Fang? Yes. Do Iblame Blake? And the answer is no." He glared at Ironwood when he opened his mouth, and the general wisely closed it. "Could she have done something to stop the Fang? The answer is still no. She would've been treated as a traitor and killed without any remorse whatsoever. The truequestion is, though: isshe currentlydoing something to repent for her crimes? And the answer is yes, even if you might not realize it." He turned to Cardin. "As for your shitty reason of `once a terrorist, always a terrorist`, then more than half of Remnant should just off themselves already. I've been murderer and hero: why should only the former matter? Sure, Blake has not been the most angelic entity in all Remnant, but right now she's a better person than you all put together. And I say more than you, not equal to you all put together, because zero plus zero plus zero is still zero, and she's more than zero."

The Writer emptied his cup in one last sip. "As interesting as it is to share facts from my past and be a smartass slash asshole, though, I'm gonna leave you in Phoenix's capable hands for this discussion. Don't get him mad," he warned as he stretched on his couch. "Because he has the authorization to incinerate you if you do."

As the other Writer, weird in a different way than Phoenix but still weird, relaxed he drew a silver cane with a dragon head as handle from apparently nowhere and smiled slightly at it. Under the stares of the others, he shrugged. "It's a gift from a friend, Adrian Midnight-Phoenix," he said. "You might've heard of him as he sent you all gifts. It's been a while since I've last seen him but I wish to see him again soon. The world's greyer without him around." Without any warning, the tapped the cane on the ground, making them flinch slightly at the noise, and the screen started up.

 **The rest of the day went a bit better for Jaune, although he was still expecting his friends to tackle him to the ground and force him to tell them what he meant about the drawbacks of that new power. He was fine with telling them about it, he was just exhausted. He didn't sleep all that great the night before, then the fight with Yang first thing in the morning and with the usual classes plus all the rumors circling around. He sighed, 'I want this day to be over already. Or at least an hour or two to just unwind.'**

"Whoops?" meekly laughed Yang.

"It's so much like you I'm not even surprised," sighed Weiss.

"But that's strange," commented Neptune. "I mean, during initiation he looked like nothing was going to stop him, and now he has to take a nap after a fight and classes… Something's off."

"You've never sparred with Yang, evidently," replied Ruby. "A Beringel is a teddy bear compared to her… Well, not really, but you get the idea. Plus he was also fighting without his weapons."

"And dealing with rumours and fame can be extremely tiring," added Pyrrha.

 **His last class was already over and he was walking through the halls aimlessly. Eventually, he just headed to the tree where they all sat at when he told them about his Semblance. He laid down under its shade and relaxed. He closed his eyes, the warmth of the day and the cooling breeze was so nice. He was just about to drift off to sleep when his scroll went off. He took it out of his pocket and put it beside him. He'd deal with it later. He put his left arm behind his head and fell asleep.**

 **About half an hour later, his friends were looking for him everywhere. After leaving him multiple messages and calls, they all became worried. The seven of them split up to find him. Yang was absolutely livid. She was searching everywhere she could think of. 'He'd better be in trouble or he'll regret it.' She thought. She was looking around the grounds of Beacon when she saw the person she was looking for laying under a tree. She started stomping her way over to him and she stopped almost right on top of him. She looked down at his sleeping form and got a mix of emotions. For one, she was pissed that he blew them off to just sleep but she couldn't doubt that his sleeping face was somewhat cute. She shook her head and decided he needed to learn a lesson. She pulled her fist back to give him a rude awakening. Until, the ground under her foot sank about a foot and caused her to lose her balance. Before she could correct herself, the ground popped back to its original level and caused her to fall on her rear. She looked around in shock, wondering what the hell just happened?**

"I think I have an idea," Jaune snorted in amusement at seeing the usually fierce brawler fall on her rear like that.

"Ouch," moaned Yang, rubbing her bottom, an action that unfortunately brought Jaune back to thoughts he had to stop from getting out of control, like how shapely and curvaceous she…. Nope, he blocked them out again, replacing them with his father's lame ass jokes. "My pride…"

"Oh, stop whining," huffed Weiss. "Your pridecan't get hurt by a fall."

"Oh yes, it very much can," retorted the blonde. "But…I guess I deserved it."

 **"Very smooth." She looked to see Jaune still laying there but with his eyes open and looking at her. She noticed his eyes were brown and put two and two together.**

 **"You used your Semblance on me?"**

"Thought so," nodded Jaune. "Remnant might be unstable but the ground doesn't just move like that."

 **He nodded and held up his right hand which held an earth dust crystal. "Serves you right. You tried to wake me up by punching me."**

 **"It wouldn't have been too hard." She said while turning her head before it snapped back. "Wait, how'd you know it was me?"**

 **"I woke up when I heard you stomping over, I also felt the heat off your Semblance when you got close."**

"He's very attentive," commented Ironwood.

 **She pouted slightly, "You could have just said you were awake."**

 **Jaune shrugged, "I would've but when I noticed you were going to hit me, I thought you'd deserve it."**

 **"Let's see you try it again." She said getting up. But as she did the ground under her feet shifted again and she fell forward. When she recovered she realized she fell on top of Jaune with their faces a few inches apart. They both stared at each other wide eyed.**

"Typical," sighed Ozpin. "Two competitive people together are usually enough to cause problems, even if just embarrassment."

"She asked for it," replied Sun, shrugging with a light smile at seeing his two fellow blonds in such a possibly embarrassing position.

"Hey, how could I've known it would've happened?" grumbled Yang. "My Semblance isn't foreseeing the future…"

"That would be useful," chuckled Ruby. "And also hilarious."

 **"Well, this is a thing." Jaune said somewhat casually. Yang was about to speak but Jaune beat her to it. "Well, I think we have three options: One, we can tease each other like usual until someone comes by and misinterprets this. Two, you could get off me and we could tell the others where we are to have that talk. Or three, the one I'm for, we could just relax here for a bit and call them later. Your choice." His eyes shifted back to the usual blue.**

 **Yang thought for a second then smirked, "You just want the chance for me to lay on top of you."**

"Ha! I found out your pl…"

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow before speaking, "I said we could relax here. Didn't say you had to lay on me but if that's what you want." He yawned slightly and closed his eyes. "I'm not gonna stop you."**

"…an," Yang finished lamely. "I guess the Swordsman wouldn't do that…"

"I don't think any Jaune would do that," mumbled Ruby.

"You're wrong," Phoenix's voice rang out and everyone turned to him, who was still refilling cup after cup of tea for Blake, who kept drinking it in silence. "I've seen many Jaune Arcs across the Multiverse and I can assure you: he can be `evil`, as you say. And usually, when he is, he's powerful and sometimes even cruel."

Jaune looked down at his words before looking at Blake. _'Am I being cruel to her?'_ he asked himself with a frown. _'Were that other Writer's words true? Should I look to what she's doing now and forget everything she has done in the past, and everything her former organization did?'_

"Not just that," added Khorevis. "Sometimes he still is the hero, but he is ready to use methods like murders and torture if it means he can save the people he cares for." He frowned. "Although he's usually seen as a monster instead of just a darker hero. That's usually what you get for straying from the sparkling path of chivalry. Hatred, even if you're eventually doing the right thing."

"Murder isn't the right thing," Pyrrha stiffly replied.

"What do you know about murder? You never committed it," countered the Writer. "Murder innocents? That's a `bad` thing. But if you kill an assassin, just how many other people have you saved from his crosshairs? I think it would be worth it."

"There must be another way," Weiss stubbornly continued.

"Yes there is," nodded Phoenix. "But it usually takes far more energy and time. Energy and time you sometimes don't have."

 **Yang thought for a second. It was a nice day and she was tired after a long day. She wouldn't mind catching a few z's. But she was a bit nervous and had to ask a question. "How do I know you won't try and pull anything?"**

"He would never do that.", stated Jaune.

 **Jaune kept his eyes closed, "One reason is because you'd beat me to a pulp if I did." He opened one of his eyes and looked in to her's. "But the main reason is that you're my friend and I respect you too much to try anything." He closed his eye again. Yang thought for a while. She didn't think Jaune would try and pull anything but him saying all that made her more confident. She decided to trust him. She laid her head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It was soothing to her, she smiled lightly before falling asleep as well.**

"Called it," commented Jaune. "He and I alike would never do that."

* * *

 **About an hour later, Yang woke up feeling well rested. She noticed that she shifted in her sleep and was now almost completely on top of Jaune. She also realized that Jaune's right arm was now lying gently on her back. She looked up at his face and saw he was still peacefully sleeping. She smiled and couldn't stop herself from thinking he was adorable. Her face flushed slightly, 'I can't be attracted to him, can I? I mean, he's not that bad looking and he's in great shape. Not ripped but toned.' She thought this and could feel his muscles under his uniform. 'Okay, that's two things. He's also a good fighter, he's nice to Ruby and he's great with his team. Maybe, I do like him.' She flushed more. 'But, is it okay? He's not in a great spot right now, but I do know what it's like to lose someone you love. I could be there for him, help him through this. And maybe…' Her mind trailed off as he shifted slightly under her and unconsciously pulled her closer to him. She just kept looking at his face and her eyes drifted down to his lips. 'Maybe he won't mind?' She slowly started to raise her head towards his and her lips were closing in on his.**

Jaune and Yang alike nearly dropped from their couches, crimson red and choking on thin air. Pyrrha's eyes narrowed and was it just him or had Ruby tightened her grip on him?

The others took the `revelation` with far more grace than them. Ren and Nora chuckled and laughed, respectively, at their leader's embarrassment, while Weiss was amused by seeing the usually teasing brawler blushing and sputtering denials. Half-hearted denials, too. That was going to be good. Even Blake was for a second torn from her depression and giggled into her hand.

The adults had a much calmer reaction except for Qrow, who accidentally inhaled his alcohol instead of drinking it. Even through the choking he glared at Jaune, but with two Writers in the room there was very little he could do. Especially because while Phoenix appeared calm and friendly enough, that Khorevis guy didn't.

Said two Writers were just enjoying the scene, both with a small smile on their face. "Ah, young love," sighed Khorevis.

"You're younger than they are," Phoenix pointed out.

"And what does it matter?" he snorted. "I'm a Writer, I can say it."

 **"Ehem, are we interrupting?" Yang froze as she heard a familiar voice with a noticeable edge. She slowly turned around to see their friends staring at them. Ren and Nora had small grins and Nora had her scroll out. Weiss and Blake had neutral expressions on. Ruby had a look of shock and maybe a bit of anger. Meanwhile Pyrrha was giving her a look that was pure anger.**

Again, Jaune felt like he was missing something, something related to the two redheads, but he couldn't quite place it.

 **"Umm, hey, guys." That was all Yang could say with a nervous smile.**

 **Weiss just stared at her. "We've been looking for Jaune for almost two hours and we find you with him, sleeping!" Weiss said very annoyed.**

 **"Who's shouting?" They all turned to Jaune as his eyes were slowly opening. He first saw Yang and gave her a small smile before he looked up at the rest of his friends. He sighed, "So much for sleeping." He took his arm off Yang, she got off of him and sat next to him. He sat up and stretched his arms before looking back at his friends. "Let me guess, want me to explain our sleeping arrangements?" he gave them a small smile.**

"Very much so, _Mr Arc_." Ruby's voice sent a shiver down Jaune's spine, and not one of fear. Not for the first time he wished she hadn't chosen to sit right on his lap. Once again, thinking of his father's jokes saved him.

 **"You really shouldn't do such indecent things in public." Weiss said.**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow at her, "We were taking a nap. I didn't sleep well the night before because I was worried about what happened yesterday." He gave Weiss a look and she understood what he meant. "And with everything today, I just wanted to relax. Yang found me first and I made her the offer to join me. That's it, nothing indecent about it."**

 **"It's normal for a girl to sleep on you?" Blake asked.**

"What kind of question is that?" asked Weiss.

"Ooooh, maybe Blake-y is curious..." said Nora. "Personal interest?"

Blake bit her lip and looked away. Even in her depression, Nora's statement wasn't _far_ from the truth. Damn her porno... I mean, _adult literature_.

 **Jaune shrugged, "My sisters used to nap with me when we were younger. Also, Nora uses me and Ren as body pillows on occasion. So, I'm used to it."**

 **"You two looked adorable by the way!" Nora showed the two the picture on her scroll of them sleeping. Yang was just glad it was from before she tried to kiss him.**

"I'm still shocked she tried," said Jaune, shaking his head.

"Why are you so surprised?" asked Blake, keeping her voice both low and friendly to avoid angering him.

Truth to be told, he handled it very well. He did stiffen a bit, but not because of anger. Because while Blake's voice could've been defined low and friendly, others might've defined it _low, throaty and so incredibly arous_ -DAMNIT! He quickly regained control of his body and brain. "Well, it's no secret I'd be lucky to be with any girl half as amazing as her," he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Although, someone as stupendous as her should never lower herself to my lev-OW!"

Ruby glared at him after having slapped him. "Don't put yourself down like that!" she exclaimed. "Any girl would be lucky to be with you! You're kind, nice, helpful, selfless and _ohmygoshforgetIeversaidanything!_ " The last part was a mumbled mess of words he couldn't understand. He gasped as she buried her face back into his shirt, narrowly avoiding imprinting her face into his chestplate. She was quite strong for someone so small.

"W-What was that?" he asked, but the others just shrugged, confused as he was.

 **"Just don't send that around the school, Nora." Jaune told her. He knew he couldn't get her to delete it so he decided not to try. She nodded at him in response. "Alright then, if you'd all sit down I'll explain the drawbacks of the 'Exceed' Element."**

"Exceed Element?" asked Weiss, frowning.

"Probably the white light," reasoned Winter.

 **They all started to sit down, "Exceed Element?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.**

 **Jaune nodded, "Yup. Since the Advance Elements are a combination of two elements, I had to come up with another name for it since its an combination of three elements."**

"Interesting, now we know how it's called..." mumbled Jaune. "I wonder if there's only one or if he can use different Elements for different types of Exceed Elements, like he does for the Advance Elements."

 **They all nodded and Jaune started to think. "Well, to start the list is the fact that I was super fatigued from using the Exceed Element. It was like an extreme case of Elemental Backlash."**

 **"What's Elemental Backlash?" Pyrrha asked.**

"All these names are kinda confusing..." said Ruby.

"That's because you are finding out about them right now," replied Jaune. "It's good to label everything of your Semblance. You keep it easy to understand. With one like that, it would get confusing extremely quickly."

"But that's because his Semblance is complicated," countered Sun.

"Not really. His Semblance is literally absorbing Dust and using it: does it sound complicated?" Jaune shrugged. "But with all the uses he found out for it, he needed to have a clear idea of it, so he named everything."

 **"That's what I call it when I become exhausted by switching between too many elements too quickly. When my aura has to absorb, release than absorb another element too quickly it becomes overwhelmed. To make sure it doesn't do any damage to me, my aura stops my Semblance from working and even stops helping my body. The sudden stop gives my body a bit of fatigue until my aura is stable enough to work again."**

 **"Was that what happened to you during initiation?" Weiss asked remembering when he saved her and Ruby from the Death Stalker.**

 **"Yup. It usually only lasts about 30 seconds to a minute or so, but it's always a bit risky. Anyways besides that, my body was going through a lot of pain. Kinda like my body would tear itself apart at any second." He looked up and thought for a second. "Maybe that's the Elemental Feedback for it?"**

"And what's that?" asked Pyrrha.

 **Yang looked at him in confusion, "What the hell is Elemental Feedback?"**

 **"When I use any Advance Element my body is subjugated to a lot of stress, that's Elemental Feedback. Each of my Advance Elements has a feedback and each one is unique. Like with ice, my body has to deal with extreme colds. That's why my body is usually freezing after using it."**

 **Everyone nodded and he continued, "The last one is the worst but I think it's because the Exceed Element is far from perfected. After I used it my aura didn't return for a full day."**

For a few seconds no one said anything. That was a pretty important detail. "Well, now we know why it's a last resort," noted Yang.

"Power never comes at a cheap price," shrugged Phoenix.

"Yeah but that's really dangerous. I mean, without Aura, how can you survive?" asked Neptune.

"The idea that without Aura you're out of the fight is something that your combat instructors made you believe over the years," Khorevis lectured them. "Civilians live without Aura all thorough their lives. I won't say my training has been the one everyone should follow, but I usually trained without Aura. If you can fight without Aura, then you will fight even better with Aura."

"But it must've been frustrating to be so weak," noted Cardin.

"I was weak at first. Even now, without using my Aura, I would be hard-pressed to win a battle against someone trained in using Aura and Semblance. But when I use Aura I can honestly say I could beat most of the people here, even without my Writer powers" replied the Writer. "You all think only to attack. My fighting style include offensive, but it usually relies on defence and counterattacks. That's why I could beat you."

"But back to the Swordsman," continued Phoenix. "That was serious, sure, but he had both Ren and Nora with him. Plus, you don't fight a horde of Grimm every day."

 **Everyone looked at him in shock, "That's pretty serious, Jaune." Pyrrha said worried.**

 **"That's part of the reason why I haven't fully devoted myself to mastering it. At least not yet. I had similar difficulties with the Advance Elements so I'm not too worried. But I will be cautious when I start working on it." He looked at Pyrrha when he said this and she nodded. "That's about it. Unless something else pops up when I start working on it." He picked up his scroll that was beside him and checked the time. "Well, I got homework to do. Better get started on it." He slowly stood up and everyone else did as well.**

 **As they were walking back to the school, Yang pulled Nora to the side. "Would you mind sending me that pic?" Yang asked Nora.**

Yang blushed again and Jaune coughed, looking away.

 **Nora smirked before she nodded. She pulled out her scroll while saying, "That was kinda sneaky though. Trying to kiss Jaune while he was asleep."**

 **Yang flushed at that but looked down at her scroll to see the picture. She smiled slightly before looking back at Nora, "Can we keep this a secret?" Nora nodded with a smile and Yang sighed in relief. "Thanks."**

 **"But, you have to do something for me first."**

 **"Okay, what?" Yang wasn't quite sure what Nora had in mind.**

 **"I wanna fight you. Right now." She smiled widely.**

"She's so Nora," sighed Ren.

"And that's why you fell for her," countered Jaune.

"W-What? No!" Nora shook her head energetically. "W-We're not t-together-together!"

"Of course Nora," nodded Pyrrha. "It's your choice, not ours."

 **Yang was taken back but she soon smiled too "You're on!" The two ran to the nearest sparring room. Their teams found them twenty minutes later both exhausted and beat up. They soon carried them back to their dorms. Ren was giving Nora a piggyback and Jaune was doing the same with Yang.**

 **"How'd I get drafted for this?" he asked halfway there.**

 **"Because you're stronger than me, Weiss and Blake. Plus, you're a nice guy." Ruby said with a smile.**

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time a cute girl recruited me for piggyback rides," sighed Jaune, missing Ruby's blush at being called cute. "My sisters do it all the time. Sometimes even more than one at a time..."

"I pity your back," commented Cardin. He too had to give lots of piggybacks to his sister. And she wasn't really as light as she thought she was. "Huntsman training is somehow _less_ tiring than piggyback rides for little sisters..."

"Only when they ask you all the time," replied Qrow, remembering a certain sister of his. "Raven was a lazy bitch when we were younger."

 **Jaune sighed and nodded as Yang buried her head further into his shoulder and mumbled in her sleep. He smiled and chuckled a bit at that. When they got to their rooms, Jaune carried Yang into her room and slowly moved her into his arm. He was holding her in a bridal carry and was trying to figure out how he was going to get her into her bed. She woke up and looked at him. He looked down at her with a smile. "Good, you're awake." Yang flushed again and quickly had him put her down. He bid everyone a good night before he left for his room. Yang quickly ran into the shower to wash up and try to calm herself down. She couldn't deny it any longer. 'I have a crush on Jaune.' She thought to herself as she smiled and felt a warmth in her chest. "Things just got complicated but very interesting." she said out loud.**

"No!" exclaimed Jaune. "Things got complicated and very dangerous for me!"

Yang feigned hurt while the others laughed. "What do you think I'm not good enough for you?" she asked daringly.

"Nope. As I said I'd be lucky to be with a girl half as amazing as you are… but there's the family," replied Jaune, his honesty initially making Yang blush slightly and then frown. "No, not _just_ yours. I have seven sisters and two stepmothers. Do you really think we'd survive both their teasing and their threats?"

"What threats?" asked Pyrrha, surprised. Also, she was gathering information for when _she'd_ have to meet Jaune's family. Sneaky girl.

"Well, for Yang there would be the `don't hurt him`, `don't take advantage of him`, `you'd better be prepared to have a lot of kids` and the `if you don't mother at least five kids on your own` threats," he said, Yang somehow managing to choke on nothing. "For me there would be the same plus the `don't you dare wait until marriage` threat."

"Your family is very... particular..." noted Ruby, as red as her cape.

"Oh yes, they are," nodded Jaune. "But after you go through teasing and threats, they're lovely, really. Stella can be a little murderous-y but she's just joking."

"Murderous-y?"

"Yeah, you know, always joking about death and laughing during the most teary scenes of movies," shrugged the boy.

Everyone shared a nervous laugh, not that he noticed their worry. But before they could completely relax, a hand tugged at Jaune's sleeve. And when he turned, his brows creased together. "Blake?"

The Faunus's cat ears were pressed against her head, her eyes looking down and her hands wringing together. "I…" She stopped for a second before breathing deeply in. "I want you to apologize for your harshness earlier."

Jaune's eyes widened while everyone else winced at the inevitable argument.

"You were far out of the line, and I won't stand for it," she stated, this time a little more forcefully. "But I also want to apologize for my words. I understand that the White Fang changed for the worst years before I thought it did. Adam probably kept me away from his most bloody missions to avoid me to break up with him. I shouldn't have known that such a violent man would've started his crime much earlier. I want to apologize for having defended the current Fang. I wanted to say that the initial Fang was a movement for equality, but the initial Fang is gone now."

The two stared at each other, Jaune's guarded eyes into Blake's now defiant ones. He was the one to look away first.

"I… I-" He stopped and gulped. "I-I guess I should a-apologize as well. I-I was out of the line and shouldn't have lashed out like that a-at you," he mumbled, shame colouring his cheeks. "My outburst was aimed more…"

"More at your own feelings than at Blake," completed Weiss, nodding. "It's normal."

"Y-Yeah, that," agreed Jaune, suddenly back to his goofy self. Blake bit her lip to stop a small, victorious smile from breaking through. "S-Sorry."

"It's okay, Jaune," she smiled at him, catching the opportunity of gaining the upper hand. "Just know I'm sorry too, okay?"

He sighed and nodded. And then he literally jumped out of the couch, sending a pouting Ruby to the ground when Blake pressed a `thank you` kiss on his cheek. Face aflame, he blurted out some garbled words about training before basically running out of the room, narrowly avoiding to smash into the wall, and disappear hurriedly.

Blake blinked before laughing. "Now I know why you tease so much, Yang: it's hilarious." She shook her head and jogged after Jaune.

"Wait, where are you going?" asked Ruby.

"To tease him more," smirked the cat Faunus, her previous depression nowhere to be seen. "An embarrassed Jaune is a hundred times better than a sulking Jaune. See you later!"

The Watchers could just stare at the spot where she had disappeared, not all of them processing the news with glee. Especially Pyrrha was sitting with her arms crossed and an irritated pout on her face.

Phoenix chuckled heartily at the scene as both Writers got up and stretched. "Well, I guess that's settled," he said before looking at Ironwood, Winter and Cardin. "You three. I won't always be here to stop you from verbally attacking Blake, but I don't need to. I can get you're angry for your own reasons, and they may be valid reasons, but do try and look at what is she doing _now_. She is not her past."

The Phoenix and Khorevis farewelled them before walking out of the door, shutting it behind them.

Finally, Ruby realized what had Blake meant, and frowned. "It sucks to be innocent," she grumbled under her breath.

 _ **Oh yeah, it sucks.**_

 _ **Anyway, before you guys start commenting on Khorevis, there is a very precise reason he's here. I might write stories with him as a side character in the future (keyword being might) so I created an SI. I added him here (I'm not planning on making him reappear in this fic) because I needed to try writing him. If you want to comment on the character per se, feel free.**_

 _ **Until next time,**_

 _ **Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh**_


	13. Chapter 12

**_Heya everyone! This chapter was actually ready 9 hours ago but I had a blackout in my county, so I post it now. See you at the footnotes!_**

Needless to say, when the Knightshade duo returned, the blond half of the pair was as red as Ruby's cloak. The brunette half of the pair was instead smirking.

Out of pure pettiness, Ruby made a show of sitting back on Jaune's lap, her eyes never leaving Blake's as she made her irritation clear. Not that she was irritated because Blake had managed to cheer up Jaune. Nope, she was irritated because it was her fault Jaune had accidentally thrown her to the ground, and damn if that hurt. She had Aura but that didn't mean she hadn't felt it. So she felt it was pretty justified if she glared at Blake… just a bit.

And of course, Cardin got a boot to the head.

The full story was that he had, of course, tried to insult or even attack Blake, but he hadn't gotten far. As soon as he had taken a step toward the cat Faunus, a heavy boot slammed into his head. He of course turned to Jaune, the thrower, but the blond merely pointed at Yang. And when she cracked her knuckles, Cardin learned why Teams RWBY and JNPR were the strongest first year students. And also why no one challenged them.

He had wisely sat back down.

Nevertheless, the whole lot of them had been chatting idly for a while, when the screen lit up.

 **It had been a few days and now its Friday. Things had been going smoothly for Jaune and his friends. Ruby and Weiss had been getting along better, Ruby would still annoy Weiss at times and Weiss would still nag Ruby. But it was better than them fighting. Nora and Yang were now closer after the impromptu fight those two had, makes sense given their personalities. They'd all found their balance between classes, homework, training and just hanging out. Jaune would say he was enjoying his time at Beacon so far, if not for two things. First, the rumors were still circulating through the school. Jaune was ignoring most of them but something else has been bothering him, Yang.**

"Me?" asked the blonde. "What?"

"Maybe he was tired of your puns," sighed Weiss.

"Nah, Yang's puns are not that horrible," interrupted Jaune before thinking about it. "I mean, I'll admit they sure aren't funny, but she tries and well, her personality alone is enough to lift the mood."

Yang coughed slightly. "Wow, Lover Boy, I didn't think you could be so suave," she teased as he blushed.

"Lover Boy?" repeated Pyrrha, eyes narrowing.

"Well, I can't call him Vomit Boy any more, so…" Yang smirked. "Or should I call him _Arc_ hangel?"

Ruby and Pyrrha blushed at the image of Jaune in full armour with his white wings whole once again. Their respective daydreams, though, differentiated because in one Jaune was holding Pyrrha bridal style, while in the other he was cuddled to Ruby and trading kisses with her, his wings covering them both from Yang's sight.

The others looked at them a little strangely when they both sighed dreamily, and Jaune yelped when Ruby tightened her grip on him.

 **Ever since the day they fought and slept together, she's been wanting to be around him more. Even when hanging out with all their friends, she would be taking glances at him when he wasn't paying attention. Her behavior had been weird lately but he really didn't mind all that much, he enjoyed Yang's company nonetheless. Besides from the teasing and harmless flirting, he found that Yang had a way to make things fun and lightened up the room with her laughter. She was also spontaneous, so that always left him guessing. Pyrrha and Ruby were getting a bit annoyed with her new attention for Jaune. When Jaune went to ask any of them about it, they quickly shifted the discussion to another topic. He gave up after a while.**

"Ohohoh!" laughed Sun. "Seems like _someone_ or rather _some ones_ have a crush on Jaune!"

"Ha!" snorted Cardin. "There's no way they would fall for a weakling like Arc. Not in this universe, at least."

Ruby's grip on Jaune tightened again as she grinned. In her daydream, Jaune had just begun kicking Cardin's ass seven ways to Oum after he interrupted their sweet moment.

In Pyrrha's daydream, things got a little more heated than just a sweet moment, but what could she do about it? She was a healthy hormonal seventeen-year-old girl, after all.

Yang opted to throw a boot at Cardin.

 **The other thing bothering him was actually more of a someone. Cardin Winchester, leader of Team CRDL and all around bully and jerk. Jaune had been the main target for his bullying or at least he tried to. Every time he tried to knock his books out of his hands, Jaune's reflexes allowed him to catch them. On the few occasions he had his swords with him, Cardin would try to mess with them. Try being the key word. After years of living outside the Kingdoms, Jaune made sure that his weapons were untouchable to anyone but him, Ren and Nora. The sheathes were nearly indestructible and the blades only reacted to a few unique auras, so they were definitely safe from tamper. The only time Cardin was close to doing anything Jaune couldn't handle was when he shoved him into a rocket locker. Although, either through panic or instincts, Jaune used an aura infused kick to open it before he could finish the coordinates. Jaune stepped out to see Cardin with an almost broken nose. After that it was apparent that Cardin's mission was to get back at Jaune.**

"Umpf…" scoffed the bully before smirking. "Oh well, I still have my best buddy Jauney here, I don't have to worry about that guy."

Ozpin calmly sipped his mug. "I have the inkling that Mr Arc's lack of combat skills have nothing to do with lack of training, Mr Winchester, and that very soon you will find yourself outclassed by him," he said. "If Mr Arc agrees, I will commission two new wing cybernetics for Mr Arc to replace his lost ones. Then we shall see if my theory is correct."

Everyone, no one more so than Jaune, stared at him in shock. "S-Sir?" asked Goodwitch.

"Glynda, I find it clear that what Mr Arc lacks is a proper stance. But as he said himself, he still hasn't gotten used to be wingless. So it might be the lack of wings on his back what destabilize him," remarked the Headmaster. "I knew John Arc personally. I don't believe he never trained his son. He did so in the old way, first training him and then unlocking his Aura so to have taught him not to rely on it, but he died before he could accomplish that. Mr Arc, your input?"

Jaune gawked at him in silence until Ruby shook him. "Er… I… H-He trained me?" he stuttered. "I-I mean, I come from a family of heroes, it would've been a bit unlikely for him not to train me… I mean, he didn't train me much but…"

"Oh, so that's why you learn so fast," noted Pyrrha, surprised. "You already do have the basis…"

 **Which brings him to combat class, he just got paired up to fight against his 'bully.' Honestly, Jaune would rather just stay away from him but he had little choice. Jaune was walking into the arena with Cardin already out there in his armor and his mace resting on his shoulder. Jaune looked him up and down, 'Considering his weapon and build, he probably focuses on pure strength to beat his opponents. Rather than try and beat him at his own game, I should use Suikiri to slowly wear him down. Plus, it'll keep most of my skills in the dark for a bit longer.' With his internal monologue over Jaune went to draw Suikiri.**

 **"What, see something you like, Arc? Too bad I don't swing that way." Cardin sneered at him and a few people laughed.**

"Sky says otherwise," snarked Ren, and everyone stared at him in shock. He sighed. "That's why I never joke or snark. Whenever I do, everyone is shocked and no one finds it funny."

"It was pretty funny, Renny," Nora reassured him, hugging his arm.

 **Jaune just sighed than decided to stop biting his tongue. "No offense, Cardin, but you're not anything close to my taste. Besides, if you knew anything about me you'd know I spend time with six extremely attractive women. While you hang with three other dudes, so who may be closer to 'swinging that way' as you said?" Jaune smirked at him as he drew Suikiri and his eyes shifted to the slightly darker blue. The class erupted in laughter at that and Cardin got pissed. Jaune didn't notice that five of the six women he just spoke of were blushing like mad at Jaune's compliment. The only one who didn't was Nora because she knew Jaune didn't see her that way but was still smiling at his words.**

Jaune stared at the screen in shock before he burst into loud guffaws. Cardin bristled at that. "What?!" he sneered. "I am _not_ a shirtlifter!"

The blond continued to laugh even as he slowly regained control over his breathing. "Totally not sorry for that, but the Swordsman is right," he grinned at him, knowing fully well that Cardin would've probably been pummelled by his friends long before he could actually harm him. "Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha and Nora are all in their own ways better than supermodels. Heck, when I first arrived to Beacon I was in doubt if I had ended up in a school for warriors or for models." His grin widened. "Then I saw you and my doubts vanished."

Cardin gritted his teeth together even as five girls blushed. "Do you really think us to be pretty?" asked Pyrrha, shyly.

Jaune blinked. "What? I mean, that goes without saying!" he exclaimed. "I mean, look at you! You are all beautiful, with charming eyes, beautiful hair that matches you, if I have to be honest the five hottest bodies I've ever had the fortune to see, plus all your wonderful personalities, I'd say that calling you pretty would be like saying that Phoenix is powerful. He's all-mighty and you're beautiful! Why you don't think so?"

He got no response as five girls blushed much harder and Ren sighed. _'Really,'_ he mentally rolled his eyes. _'I mean, he can manage to say_ _ **that**_ _because he fears they are looking down upon themselves, he can manage to get them all flustered, but he can't see the effect he's having on them. I gotta talk with him.'_

 _'He's so nice, much like Ren,'_ Nora thought beside him. _'He's just as obvious, too. I can only hope Ren will notice soon the effect he has on me.'_

 **"Break his legs, Fearless Leader!" Nora shouted at him and Jaune answered her with a thumbs up.**

 **"Are you two done talking now?" Professor Goodwitch said with a tone of annoyance. Both didn't say a word, just got into their respective battle stances. "Ready. Begin!" Goodwitch gave the signal and both Huntsmen-in-training charged at each other. Cardin started with an overhead swing that Jaune dodged easily and ran his sword against his armored ribs. Jaune turned quickly to see Cardin swinging behind him in a backhanded swing. Jaune leaned back so it missed and pointed Suikiri at Cardin's chest before firing a water blast. Not expecting this, Cardin was sent sliding a few feet back and took a decent hit to his aura. Cardin looked up to see Jaune just staring at him with a neutral expression. Cardin became further enraged by this, that was the same expression this guy always wore while looking at him. He swung his mace down and sent a series of explosions towards Jaune. Jaune swung his sword upwards with Suikiri slicing into the ground, creating a wave of water to intercept the explosions. This resulted into a wall of steam that separated the two.**

 **Jaune didn't hesitate to run through the steam with Suikiri at the ready. As Jaune erupted out of the other side, Cardin swung at Jaune from his left. Jaune kept going, knowing the armor on his left arm would absorb most of it. He swung diagonally hitting Cardin's shoulder before he felt the impact on his arm and was sent flying a few feet. He skidded to a stop before realizing the pain in his left arm. He was shocked at this until he realized something he shouldn't have forgotten. His rerebrace was lost nearly a week ago. Jaune let out a groan of frustration and anger. 'How can I forget something so stupid!' he shouted in his own head.**

"Eh, even in that universe he'll be knocked around like a doll against me," sneered Cardin.

"I'm pretty sure he's about to vent on you," deadpanned Blake.

"I'm pretty sure I can take it," retorted the boy. The students burst into laughters and even the adults cracked a smile at the bully's expense.

 **"That all you have, Jauney Boy?" Cardin said in his usual sneer.**

 **This was the wrong move. Jaune was already mad, this pushed him over the edge. He sheathed Suikiri and drew Dokiri before giving him a cold stare as his eyes shifted to brown. "Not even close." He said in a just as cold tone. This made most of the class shiver. Especially his friends, they've never seen Jaune like this.**

The laughters died.

 **"Oh boy, Jaune is pissed." Nora said in a worried tone. They all looked at her and Ren nodded before saying.**

 **"Something must have gotten under his skin during this fight. Must be something important."**

 **"What do you two mean?" Pyrrha asked her teammates.**

 **"Jaune was trained to fight with his emotions in check. His Semblance can be very dangerous, so he must be able to fight with a clear head. But when he gets angry he fights more aggressively and brutal." They all looked at him stunned. "Cardin has no chance of winning this now. He's lucky this is a sparring match or it'd be a lot worse." Before they could ask they heard a scream and looked back down to the arena.**

"I take that back, I'd like to get out of there alive," Cardin paled.

"Well, he's not wrong. A Semblance such as his is a very dangerous one indeed," noted Ironwood. "Losing control could cause untold damage."

"While you are right, my old friend, do not forget his emotions," Ozpin reminded him. "Fighting when angry will usually lead to not using the full versatility of your Semblance. With one as varied as the Swordsman's, fighting when angry probably prevents him from using the most complex combinations."

 **Jaune gave a battle cry as he rushed towards Cardin, Cardin snapped out of his shock and swung at Jaune and was shocked when Jaune met his mace with his sword. The two stood there staring each other down, Jaune's in anger and Cardin's in shock. He expected him to dodge like before, his train of thought stopped as Jaune kicked him in the chest. Before he could fully stop Jaune was already on him swinging with a series of heavy swings. Cardin remained on the defensive but was still taking hits and his aura was decreasing. Cardin saw an opening and swung his mace at Jaune, who intercepted it with his sword. Cardin smirked and released an explosion at that point. Jaune's upper body was engulfed in the explosion and smoke. Most of the class gasped at this, besides four people. Nora and Ren were calmly watching, well calmly for Nora. Yang and Pyrrha were seething and looked like they'd run down there at any moment.**

"What?!" exclaimed Cardin. "I'm fighting fair! Not my problem if your boy-toy can't take an explosion."

"That was at point-blank range," retorted Yang. "There are _rules_ even when fighting."

"And those rules do not forbid the use of such attacks," Goodwitch reminded them. "Otherwise Mr Arc's counterpart would've been banned from using his own Dust in the fight."

 **Until the smoke cleared when Jaune let his, now brown, aura blow it away. Everyone now saw that he didn't even have a scratch on him. Cardin was more so shocked until Jaune hit him across the face with an aura infused fist that felt like he was hit by a boulder. Cardin slid across the arena and when he stopped, he saw Jaune slowly walking towards him. He tried to stand but Jaune stomped his foot and caused a small seismic tremor to knock him back to the ground. Jaune at the same time rocketed forward with his aura and brought a two handed swing down onto Cardin. He was able to bring his mace up in time to stop the blade but the weight and strength behind it still created a crater underneath him.**

"Fuck, that's brutal," commented Yang.

"As if you weren't the most savage fighter of our group." Ren raised an eyebrow at her. "What the Swordsman just did was a _caress_ if compared to how you usually fight. Vicious, maybe, but not really brutal. He hadn't got time to be brutal."

 **"That's enough, Mr. Arc. Mr. Winchester's aura is now in the red, the match is yours." Professor Goodwitch stated. Jaune lifted Dokiri and sheathed it, his eyes shifting back to normal. Cardin slowly rose from the crater. "Mr. Winchester, you allowed your emotions to dictate your actions which led to you either making mistakes or not being able to capitalize on those openings you made. Try to keep a level head from now on." Cardin nodded but did not look happy. "Mr. Arc, you fought well. You made a smart move to switch tactics but you could've done more in this fight. You were holding…"**

Goodwitch sighed. "Students… It takes them years to learn that fighting is not just smashing or hacking their way through the problem."

 **"Thank you, Professor." Jaune interrupted her and bowed slightly. As he raised his head he had his usual smile on. "I'll keep that in mind."**

 **"Make sure you do. With that class is dismissed. Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before students from the other Kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing Vale."**

 **Jaune left the arena to change back into his uniform before meeting his friends outside the classroom. They all started talking as they made their way to the cafeteria. As they sat down at their usual table, Nora started to tell them about her reoccurring dream while Ren corrected her. Jaune would usually enjoy this but his mind was somewhere else.**

 **"Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrha asked him.**

 **He turned back to with his usual smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"**

 **"You don't seem fine." Ruby spoke next.**

 **Everyone turned to him and he sighed, "It's just something that happened in the fight. Just got me upset with myself."**

"Upset with himself?" repeated Weiss. "It felt more like he was angry at Winchester. If that's the way he acts when he's upset with himself, I pity the fools who make him angry at them…"

 **"What happened?" Yang asked.**

 **"That hit I took on my left arm. Usually, my rerebrace would absorb the hit but I don't have it anymore." He placed his hand on his arm. "I should've remembered that but I didn't and took the hit."**

"It's strange, though," noted Jaune. "I mean, I can get that armour absorbs most of the damage from bladed and often even pointed weapons, but a bludgeoning weapon such as a mace does not rely on sharpness to hurt. So armour is virtually useless against something like a mace…"

"Nah, that's just you," snarked Cardin. "You're virtually useless against me… or anyone for all that matters."

"Says the one swinging an overcompensating mace around all the time," snorted the silent ninja of JNPR, causing most to chuckle and the bully to flush in embarrassed anger. "You hit yourself or your teammates more than you hit your opponents."

"H-How… How dare you…!"

"Great, so now he also has brain damage," sighed the merciless heiress of RWBY before frowning. "Wait a second, he always had brain damage."

Cardin growled in anger as the others just laughed harder.

"And then you call _me_ an animal," scoffed the cat Faunus of the RWBY. "Try to say that without growling and snarling."

At that point Jaune, Ruby, Yang and Sun all had difficulty breathing. Pyrrha was hiding her giggles behind a hand while Nora was laughing carefree. Even the adults had smirks of their own: being mature didn't always mean they couldn't enjoy a good verbal beating.

 **"That's what got you angry? A mistake?" Blake asked him.**

 **"No. The fact that I lost it is what infuriates me." Jaune said calmly.**

 **Everyone looked at each other than back at Jaune before Weiss spoke up. "Why don't you get another one?"**

 **Jaune looked up at her with a sad smile, "It had a lot of sentimental value, Snow Angel. Can't get that back with a new one."**

 **Everyone finally understood. Pyrrha started thinking, 'Jaune said he got it from his teacher and when I said they could probably get a new one, he shut himself off. What's going on?' She was about to ask when everyone's attention was brought to the sound of someone obnoxiously laughing. They all looked to see Team CRDL harassing a rabbit Faunus. Most people at their table were not exactly happy at this.**

Cardin felt himself sweating under the glares. He didn't dare to make a comment on Faunus and animals.

 **"Atrocious. I can't stand people like him." Pyrrha stated.**

 **Blake was staring daggers over to them, "You're not the only one…"**

 **"Must be hard being a Faunus." Yang said sadly.**

"It depends on where you live, actually," replied Jaune. "Back in Orléns, being a Faunus or being a human wouldn't attract hatred on you. Everyone was equal… especially because the Arc Clan was more or less the ruler there, and we have always been a mixed family."

Blake's cheeks tinged of a lovely pink shade matching Nora's theme. "M-Mixed family, huh?" she murmured to herself.

"You know what? Screw you," scoffed Cardin. "You're all talk but why's that no one of you actually did a shit? It's not against the rules. Beacon's a school for Huntsmen, not pussies. You don't come here if you don't want to fight."

"As leader of JNPR and co-leader of the group of Team RWBYJNPR, I propose a team-bonding exercise for when we go back to Remnant," solemnly stated Jaune. "Beating the crap outta CRDL."

"Agreed," nodded Blake.

"I'm totally in!" exclaimed Yang.

"We'll break their legs!" cheered Nora.

"I agree with Nora, we'll break their legs," agreed Pyrrha.

"Team RWBYJNPR will reign forever!" claimed Ruby.

"Since there are no rules against it, I don't see any reason for refusing," commented Weiss.

"It'll be nice to allow Nora to vent on someone from time to time," smiled Ren.

Cardin was a hair's breadth away from pissing himself.

 **All conversations at the table were stopped when they heard an accented scream, "Ow! That hurts!" They all turned to see Cardin pulling her rabbit ear.**

 **"Okay that's going too far!" Ruby looked like she was about to bolt over there until she heard Nora say something.**

 **"Don't worry. Jaune has this!" She said with an evil grin. They all looked at her then where Jaune was. They all saw him making his way over to Team CRDL and the Faunus girl.**

 **"Please, stop…" she was whimpering in pain.**

 **Cardin laughed and turned to his team. "I told you it was real!" before he knew it he had a sharp pain going through his wrist. "Ow!" He screamed and turned to see a very angry Jaune standing between him and the Faunus girl with a tight grip on his wrist of the hand that once held her ear.**

 **"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jaune asked him.**

 **"Just messing with an animal. Wha-OW!"**

"Wrong answer," smirked Blake.

 **At the animal remark Jaune applied more pressure, anymore and he'd probably break his wrist. "I've seen racists like you all the time, Cardin. I'm not a fan. If I see you doing anything like this again, I will break more than your wrist. Understand?" Jaune's voice left little to argue. Cardin started nodding his head. Jaune let go of his wrist and turned around with his hand gently on the girl's back, leading her away. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice full of concern. She stared at him blankly until they heard people yelling.**

 **"Jaune, watch out!" Yang and Pyrrha yelled in sync.**

 **Jaune moved to the side and saw a fist just barely miss his head. He grabbed that arm and pulled the person over his shoulder. Cardin hit the ground on his back hard enough to have the air knocked out of him. Next thing Cardin saw was Jaune's foot coming down towards his throat, it stopped an inch above it. Cardin gulped and looked up at Jaune, who had very cold eyes looking at him. Jaune stepped away from Cardin and ushered the girl out of the cafeteria. When they got out the door, he turned back to her. "Sorry about that, are you okay?"**

"Mr Arc, you should learn never to turn your back on your enemy, or you _will_ get yourself killed," haughtily commented Goodwitch.

"Glynda, stop antagonizing the boy," Ozpin ordered sternly. He did not look amused. "I can understand you have your own opinions. But this is becoming ridiculous. You've been warned by Phoenix already, but maybe you need someone closer to you to understand. Mr Arc may currently have a difficult time fighting his peers, but I've accepted him into this school, and he passed initiation. Are you going to doubt _my_ decisions?"

Goodwitch shrank in her seat at his words, but as soon as Ozpin took his eyes off her she glared at Jaune once again. "You don't belong here," she muttered under her breath.

 **She nodded her head and looked at him still in shock, "Yes, I'm fine."**

 **Jaune sighed, "Good."**

 **"Why did you do that?" Jaune looked back at her in confusion. "Why did you help me?"**

 **"Because it was the right thing to do. Plus, I hate racists, almost as much as I hate Grimm. And as a Faunus, I know your hands can be tied in situations like that." He smiled at her. She just stared at him. She never had someone stand up for her besides her team. She didn't realize a tear was running down the side of her face. He brought his hand up and she flinched slightly. Until Jaune gently wiped away the tear. "If you have a problem like that again, just come to me. Okay?" She nodded dumbly before she hugged him.**

 **"Thank you. Thank you." She was saying weakly.**

 **Jaune gently hugged her back and patted her back. "No problem."**

"Ah, they're so cute!" exclaimed Nora. "The dashing knight saving his damsel in distress!"

 **They separated and she looked at him slightly embarrassed. "Thank you again. Um?"**

 **He smiled and held out his hand. "Jaune. Jaune Arc."**

 **She took his hand, "Velvet Scarlatina." She said with a small smile.**

 **"A pleasure to meet you, Velvet. Are you gonna be okay?"**

 **She nodded with the same small smile, "Yes. I have to meet my team anyways. Thank you again, Jaune." She turned and walked down the hall. Jaune just smiled before he entered the cafeteria again. He sat down with his friends and Nora had him instantly in a bear hug.**

 **"That was amazing, Fearless Leader!" Jaune chuckled and patted her on the head.**

 **"Of course he had to go save the pretty girl." Jaune looked over at Yang, who didn't seem happy.**

"Ooooooh, someone's jealous," snickered Sun.

"I'm warning you, Monkey Boy, I'm gonna castrate you if you don't stop," growled Yang, but her threat sounded empty when one took in the blush on her cheeks.

"Come on, Yang, you ca tease others but they can't tease you? That's not fair…" Weiss laughed at her expression. "What? It's just payback for all your teasing."

"You all suck," she mumbled miserably. "You. All. Suck."

 **"So what if she was a girl, Yang? I would've done that for any Faunus. I can't stand people like Cardin." He said with a venom in his words and his friends stared at him.**

 **"Why though? Why do it?" Blake said curiously.**

 **Jaune didn't say anything. They looked over to Nora and Ren who had the same expression as Jaune. Jaune took a deep breath before continuing. "Someone we knew was a Faunus and we had to watch her deal with shit like that on a regular basis." He gripped the table tightly. "So now, I refuse to sit by and watch that happen if I can stop it." At that the bell rang and they all left to go to class. Blake was still staring at Jaune's retreating form with shock. She then smiled slightly and followed him to their History Class.**

As the screen cut to black, they all heard a sigh. Jaune carefully moved Ruby from his lap and stretched, again sighing in relief when several bones popped. "That was nice to see," he commented.

"Are you going to the training rooms again?" asked Yang. "Because I'm coming as well."

"I was actually going to the forge again for my armour," he replied, rubbing the back of his head. "Maybe another time? I mean, it's not like I'm eager to get beaten into the ground…"

"Oh, come on, I wouldn't go that hard with you," she pouted at him, but having seven sisters meant that even pouts wouldn't be able to move him. "No chance?"

"I'd like for my armour to be complete before I try going up against you," he remarked dryly. "No offence, Yang, but I think I still have bruises from our _first_ fight."

"Hey, I said I was sorry!" she protested, but someone else butted in.

"Mind if I accompany you, Jaune?" asked Pyrrha. "Out of all of us, I am the only other who wears armour."

Jaune glanced at her `armour` before clearing his throat. "Ehm… No offence, Pyrrha, but I don't think a corset would fit me well," he laughed sheepishly. "A-Anyway, if you want to come with me, feel free."

"Can I come as well?" asked Ruby.

"Well…" Jaune noticed Pyrrha's glare. "You already helped me with my weapon, it wouldn't be fair to the others to let you see my armour too before I even showed them my weapon."

Ruby deflated. "Aww…"

"But hey, after I finish the armour I'll show it to everyone, okay?" the boy offered, trying to cheer her up. It worked.

"Okay, see you later then!" Ruby smiled as they walked out of the door. "Oh, and Pyrrha: don't try anything when you two are alone!"

 ** _See? Even Ozpin wants Jaune to have his wings back. This fic is family friendly._**

 ** _Now, you might notice I'm starting to add a bit on the romance side of the story. Why? Because so I'll have open roads for any pairing I'd like to use in this. Am I being awful at it? Sorry guys, never dated anyone before, so I have 0.00 experience. Go easy on me._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	14. Chapter 13

**_Today will be the day... I KILL MY BROTHER! Seriously, can't he just lay off with the rambling for a second!?_**

 ** _Okay, I think I owe you an explanation. My twin brother has "recently" started playing a RPG videogame called "Neverwinter Nights". It's a videogame with the rules of D &D [Dungeons&Dragons, a role-play game] 3.0, and thus far it's okay. But it's days he keeps rambling on and on about how he did this, and how the Balor Lord was so strong, and how the Drow Priestess shouldn't have her divine powers because her goddess left her, and how a Demilich is stronger than a lich, and how the golems this, and how the mad wizard that... ARGH! He talks every time we have our daily walk of 1.5 hours on the canal bank. These days we were tasked to take care of our little brother. Guess what? I took care of my little brother... he stood in the same room talking and talking and talking, with me having to split my attention between the two of them. Hell, this morning I went to the bathroom and he stood outside the bathroom door, while I was trying to defecate, rambling on and on about this game and asking me if I knew how strong an Archdevil of the Nine Hells is in terms of Challenge Rating and levels! ARGH!_**

 ** _I can take care of my little brother. He's a handful, but I can manage. But taking care of BOTH my brothers while trying not to murder the team that created Neverwinter Nights? Come on!_**

 ** _Anyway, onto the story. This is an important chapter, mind me. It's Jaune's awakening._**

"Sir, could I have a word, please?"

Ozpin lowered his mug and looked at the woman. He knew what she was going to say, and he knew what she was going to do. Being teleported out of her home universe hadn't changed her too much, and she still was the woman he knew. But since he too hadn't changed, he wanted to hear her say it without helping her. "Of course, Glynda. And please, call me just Ozpin. I know I'm old but being called `sir` by my closest assistant reminds me of just how old I am."

He stood up and followed the blonde woman into a corner, the rest of the Watchers blissfully unaware of their movements.

Ironwood and Winter were playing chess against Qrow, who was showing off the skill he had gotten during years and years of seeing Ozpin play. With Jaune and Pyrrha gone, the five remaining girls of RBWY and -N-R were playing some card game. Actually, looking at them, Ozpin wasn't sure if they were all playing the same game, or even playing with the same cards, especially since Nora had a poker in her hand while Weiss held three trump cards in her own. Cardin, Sun, Neptune and Ren, instead, were playing Remnant: the Game, and the silent boy was completely dominating the other three with a bored look on his face.

Ozpin turned back to Glynda. "What is the matter?"

The stern professor glanced at the students before looking back at him. Her no-nonsense personality was one of the things he had always admired about her, because it allowed her to speak her mind even when most other people wouldn't have. "Sir, it regards the boy, Mr Arc."

Ozpin cocked an eyebrow and sipped his coffee. "What about him?" he asked, a noticeable edge in his voice.

Again, most people would've winced at the edge, but Goodwitch wasn't most people. "I'm beginning to see what you and Phoenix meant, what the students meant and what Mr Arc himself meant," she said. "But the point is that I am a strictly logical person, and as such I always follow reason."

"And what is reason telling you to do now?" inquired the elderly professor.

"Take time to think about it," was her immediate response. She raised a hand to stop him. "I trust you, Ozpin, and against my better judgement I trust Phoenix too. But this is going too fast. You want me to change my mind in a matter of an hour. Well, that is not possible. I am not that kind of person."

"Explain."

"Sir, with all due respect, I initially doubted your decision to allow Mr Arc into Beacon. Maybe I was being stubborn, maybe I wasn't. Point is that Phoenix lectured me just three viewings ago, and then you lectured me during the last viewing. And with all that's been happening in between… I haven't got the time to think about it." She shrugged helplessly. "How can I make up my mind about Mr Arc if I am not allowed the timeto think about it? My opinions are not based on nothing, Ozpin, and I need time to process the new information I have before coming up with new opinions. Mechanical, maybe, but efficient. That's how I survived doing my job up until now."

"So what you're asking is…" began the man.

"I'd like to wait this viewing out. You will inform me of its contents later. For a bit, I'd like to think about what you told me." She sighed. "And also what Phoenix told me."

Ozpin looked at her before nodding slowly. "I understand. Take your time." He glanced at the screen, that was starting up. "I'll sum everything that will happen up for you when you come back. I think Phoenix will be okay with letting you out for a few moments."

"Thank you, sir," replied the woman, turning and heading out of the door. As she exited, she almost bumped into Jaune and Pyrrha. Ducking her head low, something really out of character for the stern professor, she disappeared from sight.

Confused by her strange behaviour, the two merely sat down as the viewing began.

 **Jaune made his way to his History class with Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha. As they arrived, he noticed that Velvet was also in their class. He waved at her and she returned it with a shy smile as he sat in his usual spot. Not long after that, Dr. Oobleck showed up and started teaching, if you call zooming around the front of the room, talking a mile a minute and drinking coffee teaching. Jaune tried to follow along but it was just impossible. He gave up on trying to follow along with the lectures, which meant that he had to study twice as much as the normal student but he dealt with it. Halfway through the lecture Jaune got an idea and pulled out his scroll discreetly to message Ruby.**

"Eheh, apparently Dr Oobleck hasn't changed one bit," chuckled Yang.

 **Jaune: Hey Ruby. You busy?**

 **After a minute or so she responded.**

 **Ruby: In class but what's up?**

 **Jaune: Nothing much. Was just wondering if after dinner who'd wanna go to the library together to knock out some of our assignments before the weekend?**

 **Another minute later she responded.**

 **Ruby: Sure! Weiss would nag me anyways so two Nevermore, one bullet.**

 **Jaune: Sweet!**

 **After that Jaune tuned back into Oobleck's lecture to catch up on what he was talking about.**

 **"Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" Several students raise their hands, Velvet included. "Dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence! I mean, look at what happened to the White Fang! Now, which one of you young scallions can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the war?"**

 **Weiss raised her hand, "The battle at Fort Castle!"**

"Thus far it's gone more or less how it did in our universe," commented Weiss.

"You probably just jinxed it, you know?" Blake sighed. Seriously, _everyone_ knew not to make those kind of comments.

"I certainly hope so, this is getting kinda boring, I want to see something different!" exclaimed Yang, basically jumping up and down in her seat.

 **"Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" Jaune raised his hand. "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing! Excellent! What is the answer?"**

 **"Night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark. General Lagune was a moron and tried to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and he got himself captured."**

"Evidently you paid more attention in that universe than in this," scoffed Cardin.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" protested Jaune. "Pyrrha continued to mimic binoculars! Okay, I didn't know the answer, but Pyrrha didn't help, either!"

"You were kinda mimicking binoculars," Blake nodded toward the champion.

"Sorry, I'm not exactly used to miming," apologized the redhead.

 **"Exactly but I wouldn't have said it so bluntly Mr. Arc."**

 **Jaune shrugged, "Sorry, Sir. I've always been known to speak with blunt honesty." Pyrrha was trying to hide a giggle and Blake had a small smirk. Jaune gave them a glance and a smile. But that faded at the next thing he heard.**

 **"It was probably a lot easier to train animals than soldiers, anyhow." Jaune spun around to see Cardin with his usual smirk. That disappeared as he saw Jaune's angry look. They both stood up and looked like they'd start swinging.**

"Ahahahahahahahaaahahaahhahah!" Cardin's loud and obnoxious laugh echoed in the room, and everyone focused on him. "Sorry, I just tried to picture Jauney Boy here trying to do the same! Ahahahaaahaah! He would get himself pummelled and he would need to be saved by one of the pussies he's so friends with! That's so funny! Ahahaahahahahhahhaah!"

Jaune wasn't the only one to clench their fists and repeat a mantra to themselves. _'Must not kill. Must not kill. He's just not worth the jail time.'_

Ozpin had to hide his smirk behind a sip. _'If I were you, Mr Winchester, I would start apologizing. I have the inkling you will be in for a nasty surprise very soon.'_ Far from Salem and his day-to-day problems, the Headmaster sighed in contentment as he relaxed on his couch, enjoying life and especially enjoying seeing his students live their lives. It was like a soap opera.

 **"Mr. Winchester, Mr. Arc! Please take your seats. Both see me after class for additional readings." The two sat down and Oobleck went back to his lecture. Jaune was still irritated at the comment. He wanted nothing more than to break Cardin's face, just like he'd do if he was outside the Kingdoms. He clenched his fist on the table until he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Pyrrha giving him a sympathetic look, along with Blake surprisingly. He calmed down and smile at the two. After class the two stayed behind to get their extra readings and left. As they did Cardin shoved Jaune but he caught himself and spun around.**

 **"Do we have a problem?!" Jaune was at his limit with this guy.**

 **"I don't know, do we?!" Cardin got right into Jaune's face but he didn't back down. Compared to what Jaune has been through, he was nothing.**

 **"Just say the word and I'll kick your ass like I've done twice now." Jaune said completely serious.**

 **Cardin grabbed the front of his uniform, "You think you're better than me, Arc!?"**

 **Jaune looked at his face dumbfounded and just shook his head slightly. He grabbed Cardin's hand and shoved it off him before he turned around and started walking away. "Get over yourself." Was all he said as he walked away from him. He was just done with Cardin and didn't want to keep this feud going. He missed the dark look in Cardin's eyes and him clenching his fists, this was not over.**

"One thing I do not understand," Jaune suddenly spoke up, and turned to Cardin. "I can get you're a douchebag and so you pick on me because I'm weaker than you are. But why would you try to pick on someone who's far stronger than you are?"

"He was trying to become popular by beating the Swordsman," explained Yang, who knew a lot about popularity. "And he began picking on him after he realized he wouldn't fight back."

* * *

 **Jaune and all his friends were sitting down for dinner. He was in a lot better mood after the day had ended. He was drinking some water when Yang decided to throw a curve ball at him.**

 **"So, we're extremely attractive women, Hero?" she said with a teasing smile with he hands under her chin.**

"Is that gonna become my permanent nickname?" asked Jaune, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope," came from under his chin. He looked down and saw Ruby back on his lap, her face buried into his shirt as usual. She spoke without thinking. "That's the Swordsman's nickname. You're our Knightly Angel."

Then both teens processed those words, and promptly blushed of a shade of crimson that probably crossed into the infrared spectrum. Their Aura protected them from death by head blood convergence, or an overload of blood in the blood vessels placed in the head, especially the brains. Also known as brain trauma. That was what they got for not thinking before speaking. Their mothers had tried to teach them the holy art of keeping their mouths shut, but they never learned.

Smirking at the awkward pair, Yang laughed. "I like the sound of Knightly Angel. It'll stick."

"Still better than Vomit Boy," sighed Jaune.

"So I won't be able to call you Jaune-Jaune any more?" Nora pouted, but Ren placed a hand over her shoulder.

"Having a nickname does not prevent you from earning others, Nora," he explained. "So you can still call him whatever you want."

 **Jaune quickly turned away and did a spit take before looking back at her. "Are you trying to kill me, Yang?"**

 **She shrugged with that same smile. "No, I like having you around. But you didn't answer my question." He was going to ignore her but all the girls at his table were staring at him besides Nora, who was braiding Ren's hair for whatever reason. Realizing he wasn't getting out of this he sighed before continuing.**

 **"Well, yeah. You're all attractive in your own way and you all have your own type of beauty. I would think you'd all know this." He shrugged as the girls blushed a bit.**

 **"Care to give us examples?" Yang continued with the same grin.**

"Are you… trying to get him to call you beautiful?" asked Jaune. "I thought you got that enough times already, Yang."

"Not from honest people." She grimaced. "And often they are just perverts."

 **Jaune flushed slightly before scratching the back of his head, "I guess not." He thought for a second. "Well, Pyrrha here has very beautiful emerald green eyes and very lovely hair. I actually personally think it looks better when she has it down but her ponytail gives her, her own style. Plus, her fighting style is both beautiful and captivating. Making it amazing to watch." Pyrrha blushed and quickly looked away from her partner.**

 **He moved on, "While Weiss has a type of refined beauty, like seeing a professional carve the most beautiful angel out of ice. I've also heard a few of your songs after you let it slip that you sing, and in my humble opinion, that is what an angel would sound like. On top of that is your scar, it draws attention to your crystal blue eyes that show the warmth hidden under your cold exterior." Weiss gently brought her hand up to her scar before her face flushed red as Ruby's hood before she looked down.**

 **"Blake, well you have your own kind of mysterious beauty. Your amber eyes seem to peer directly into my soul and see who I really am. Your whole stoic demeanor just puts me at ease and seeing you read all the time shows how intellectual you are. And your bow accents your hair very well but I'd wager you'd look better without it." Blake hid behind her book trying to hide her own blush. All the girls were taken aback, Jaune always spoke with so much honesty that they all knew he truly felt this way towards them. But he was in no way hitting on them, it was nice to be complimented respectively and not like pieces of meat.**

 **"And what about me?" Yang was getting impatient waiting for her turn.**

 **"Well, Yang, you have a very beautiful laugh that just seems to brighten the room and makes me want to make you laugh as often as possible. Your lilac eyes are just as pretty and when they switch to that red, well they are somewhat scary but they show your feelings in the realest way. But I'd say your most outstanding feature is your hair. It's so bright and shines so beautifully in the light, also its very soft."**

"Wow, he surely knows his way with words," chuckled Yang.

"Nah, as he said he's just being completely honest," replied Jaune. "Usually, poetry and bluntness do not go well together."

"Are you saying we're not beautiful?" snapped Weiss.

"Never said that!" Jaune atoned quickly. "I'm just saying that poetry weave gems of truth alongside cloths of words."

"You came up with that?" asked Blake, a little surprised by the sudden poeticness.

"Nope, stole it from one of my sisters," he grinned. "I know a little of poetry but she's the expert."

"I bet she's a cute, short girl with blonde hair and green eyes, sitting at a table and writing poem after poem," chuckled Neptune. "Some for love, some for nature and some just for poetry itself. Am I right?"

"Nah. She's as tall as I am, pretty I'll give her that, with short black hair and green eyes," replied the Arc son. "She likes to come up with poems and songs while she slaughters Grimm in the most agonizing way she can come up with."

"That's… nice…" said Yang, remembering Jaune's tales of what ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends had to endure by the vengeful hands of the Arc family. "Y-You know P-Money, good luck with meeting the parents."

"I'll need it," responded the paling redhead.

"Oh, come on!" exclaimed the boy. "Most of you grin or even outright laughs in combat, what's wrong with Stella coming up with a couple of poems?"

 **Yang was taken back slightly, "How do you know what my hair feels like?"**

 **"Yang, you slept on top of me and my hand moved to your back when we slept. I felt it then, remember?"**

 **She blushed slightly but continued, "I don't let anyone touch my hair. You're lucky I didn't pummel you."**

 **Jaune bowed slightly, "Than I'm honored you didn't and gave me that honor, Sun Fire." He smiled at her.**

"Honestly, Spitfire would be a better fit for you," snorted Jaune.

"Spitfire?" asked Nora.

"A type of jet fighter," explained Ironwood. "An extremely powerful type."

"Aww, already giving me a pet name, Jauney?" smirked Yang, much to the other blond's embarrassment. "You're so nic-" She interrupted herself when she felt more than one dark presences flare up. She wisely chose not to finish the word.

Jaune, instead, was trying to turn himself into stone out of embarrassment. Why couldn't Yang stop with her teasing? Or at least why couldn't _he_ stop being so easily embarrassed? He knew she didn't mean anything by it! So why did he get embarrassed!?

 **She blushed a bit more but before anyway could say anything, Nora came into the conversation. "See? That's our Jaune, he's always been like this! That's why Amber fell for him!" Her eyes widened and she quickly put her hand on her mouth. Ren's eyes widened and everyone turned to Jaune who had his head down. He slowly got up after a minute or so, and his hair hid his eyes.**

 **"I'll see you guys later." He started making his way back to the door.**

 **"I'm sorry." That was all Nora said. Jaune just raised his hand and waved, 'It's alright' is what that meant. As he left Nora looked down, "I'm a big dummy."**

 **Ren gently patted her on the back, "He knows you didn't mean anything by it, Nora. He's just hurting." She nodded but didn't look up.**

"Aaand you ruined what was becoming my favourite moment so far," sighed Sun, getting stares from everyone. "How many times do I have to say this: I Am A Sucker For Sweet Scenes!"

"He's partially right though, it was a very nice moment," agreed Pyrrha, and Nora shrank.

"Nora, it wasn't your fault, you didn't mean any harm," Ren comforted her.

"Doesn't change the fact I ruined his imminent engagement with all of RWBY and Pyrrha!" she pouted even as six other students looked on the verge of steaming from their ears in embarrassment. "And don't deny it, you were all this close to jumping Jaune!"

 _'He's my first friend, I got dibs,'_ Ruby thought into his shirt.

 **Jaune walked around Beacon trying to calm himself and clear his head. He knew she didn't mean anything by it, it just hurt. Amber was Ren and Nora's friend but they never brought her up because Jaune was hurting so much. He hated that because they had to be silent about their closest friend besides the three of them. He wished he'd be able to move on but he just couldn't. Not yet.**

Ozpin found himself smirking as he eyed the embarrassed students. _'Not yet, Swordsman? Take it from someone who has experience in the matter: with the horde of women you're charming, you're gonna be ready_ _ **very**_ _soon. For your own sake.'_

 **After a while, Jaune went to grab his things before heading to the library to meet Ruby, that was if she was still going to be there. As he was making his way through the library looking for her, he went around a corner and he bumped into someone. The someone almost fell but he caught them, "I'm so sorry. Blake?" Yup, there was Blake. Stopped halfway to the floor by Jaune's arms wrapped around her waist. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Jaune helped her to stand. "I'm sorry again."**

 **"It's fine, Jaune. But what are you doing here?" she asked politely.**

 **"Well, me and Ruby were supposed to meet up to knock out some of our assignments. Also, I was gonna see how she was handling her role as leader so far." Jaune added sheepishly.**

 **"That's very considerate of you, Jaune. Mind if I ask you something I've been curious about though?"**

 **"I don't see why not."**

 **"Why do you care for Faunus so much and why do you fight for them so passionately?"**

"Ohohohoh!" exclaimed Nora. "The kitty is studying her next meal!"

"Nora, that's enough," sighed Ren.

 _'Well, Ms Valkyrie is not completely wrong,'_ noted Ironwood.

 **Jaune stopped for a second to think carefully, he wanted to answer but didn't want to give all the details, "Well, as I said before, someone Ren, Nora and I knew was a Faunus and we saw her go through a lot. But she never fought back due to the fact that it would just cause more problems in the long run. So I swore that if I could help any Faunus, I would. If they couldn't fight, I'd do it for them. This is the burden that I swore to carry. It's the least I could do, considering…" Jaune looked away at that point.**

 **Blake was looking at him and absorbed his words. She was stunned that a human could care for Faunus in way like this. It gave her hope and made her happy. Truly happy. She smiled, "That's very honorable of you."**

 **Jaune looked at her and smiled sheepishly, "Thanks, Blake. So, why are you here? Reading?"**

 **She nodded, "Yup, I wanted to read in peace without Yang or Weiss bothering me." Her eyes widened a bit and started to frantically look for something. "Oh no, where is it?"**

 **Jaune looked down and by his feet was a book. He leaned over to pick it up and read the title, "Ninjas of Love." He opened it to the bookmarked page and started reading.**

 **Blake stared in horror. There was nothing she could do, Jaune was reading where she left off and it was at one of the more heated parts. She couldn't play it off in anyway. She didn't want anyone to find out about her preference to reading but it was too late. He'd look down on he for it, she just knew it. She closed her eyes and waited for it.**

And boy if she got it. "Pooooooooooorn!" shouted Yang.

"Erotic literature," she moaned miserably.

"Sure," scoffed Weiss. "That is pure filth."

"Come on, Blake," smiled Nora. "Even if you read smut you're still our friend!"

 **"One of the best parts of the book."**

"Wait, what?"

"You read that book?" asked Yang.

"Yes I did," sighed Jaune. "Frankly I read it because a friend of mine asked me to, and after the first book I began reading the series because of the plot."

"You read porn?" repeated Cardin, a smirk on his face. "Figures. Pervert."

"The title `Ninjas of Love` is just a mistranslation of the original title `Ninjas d'Amour`, with Amour being the kingdom the main characters live in. So the title literally means the ninjas of the kingdom Amour." He sighed. "My friend wrote it in our dialect so it had to be translated first."

Wait, why did he have the feeling he had just said something he shouldn't have?

"The author is your friend?" a voice purred in his ear. He froze as Blake seemed to materialize just beside him, her body pressed against his back. "What do you want in exchange of the next book's premium edition?"

 **Blake blinked, "W-what?"**

 **Jaune gestured to the book in his hand, "You've gotten to one of the best parts of the book. The two characters are finally able to express their love for each other. Its romantic." He smiled.**

 **Blake's mind started to catch up. "Wait, you've read it before?"**

 **Jaune nodded, "Yeah. I picked it up a while ago on accident and loved it. Although, Nora teased me mercilessly about it." He chuckled slightly before sighing. "I never finished it though. Forgot it when I came to Beacon." He handed Blake her book and she accepted it, bringing it close to her chest.**

"Oh, you mean _I_ teased you?" Nora smirked as she prepared herself for the merciless teasing. She was stopped when a book dropped onto everyone's lap, each with a note.

 _"This is Ninjas of Love Book 1, no `heated` moments. Read and be educated. Signed, Blake Belladonna. Yes, I asked for this instead of food and it appeared."_

"What?" Most in the room just threw the books aside. Secretly, a few kept it. Secretly, those few were Sun (but just for the romance), Neptune, and all the eight students of RWBY and JNPR. But it's a secret. SECRET!

 **"Can you not tell anyone about this? Please?" she looked at him practically begging.**

 **"Sure. No problem."**

 **"Really?"**

 **"Yeah. What's a favor between friends?"**

 **Blake took a second before she smiled, "Thank you."**

 **"Although, could I ask you for a favor in return?"**

 **"I guess so. What is it?"**

 **Jaune sheepishly scratched his head, "Um, could I borrow it when you're done? It's been bugging me not to know how it ends."**

 **Blake thought for a second, "I don't see why not. Just promise to take care of it."**

 **"Absolutely!" Jaune smiled. "Well, I better find Ruby. See you later, Blake." As they were walking away Jaune didn't see the smile on Blake's face. Jaune looked around for Ruby and eventually found her at a table already starting her work. Jaune grinned at sat next to her. She turned to him with a smile.**

 **"Hey, Jaune. Wasn't sure you'd show up."**

 **"I'd never blow you off, especially since this was my idea. Besides, I have some extra readings to do for Oobleck." He said slightly annoyed.**

 **"Ouch. What happened?"**

 **Jaune sighed, "Cardin said something racist and got under my skin. If not for Oobleck being there, we probably would've started fighting."**

"And Cardin would've gotten his ass handed to him," completed Yang.

"Hey!"

"Ms Xiao Long is right, Mr Winchester," commented Ironwood. "Our Jaune Arc might be a criminal faker but the one we're watching is a skilled fighter."

"James, I think you're going too far by calling him a criminal," stated Ozpin, already tired of having to tell off his own colleagues. "He passed initiation. For all that matters, Ms Rose wouldn't have been accepted into Beacon with her transcripts, either. While her fighting skills are on par with Beacon's standards, her academic grades were… questionable."

Ruby slumped before Jaune tapped her shoulder. "Hey, come on you're much better now. Not the best but way better than many. Weiss might've been brutal with her methods but you can't deny her tutelage got you up to par with everyone else."

"Not up to you… I'm still appalled by the fact you of all people are one of the best in class," grumbled Cardin.

Nora laughed nervously. "Oh well, after his gaffe in History of Remnant, Ren and Pyrrha decided to coach him…" Everyone looked at Jaune, who in turn had turned empty-eyed. Nora nervously laughed again. "Let's just say that by the end of the week he was among the best in class… in all academic classes."

"The horrors…"

Suddenly, Cardin felt pity for the poor knight. If the two's tutelage had been enough to make Nora nervous, then it must've been inhuman.

 **Ruby looked at him concerned, "That's not good, Jaune."**

 **"I know, I know. I'm done with the whole situation anyways. Not worth the time and energy."**

 **Ruby smiled, "Good."**

 **The two sat together talking and working with each other. If one had a problem with their assignment, the other usually had the answer. They talked about how their classes were going, how their teams were and how being a leader was treating them. Overall, they had a good night. They were almost done with everything when Jaune looked over to her and saw her nodding off. Made sense, they were working for about 3 hours now. Jaune started packing everything up and stood beside Ruby before gently shaking her. "Hey, Ruby. Let's call it a night."**

 **She looked up at him sleepily and nodded slowly. It was adorable. Jaune was waiting for her to get up when instead she raised her arms slightly and sleepily said, "Can you carry me?" That just added even more cuteness on top of it and he crumbled.**

"Really, Ruby, I think you could tame Grimm with your cuteness," sighed Jaune, shaking his head. "Fortunately Yang and I are immune to your adorableness or there would be no one to keep an eye on you."

"You think I'm cute?" shyly asked the girl.

Jaune blinked before laughing. "Ruby, don't tell this to my sisters but you're by far the cutest girl I've ever seen. Not just your looks but your personality too!" he exclaimed before stopping abruptly. "Wait, did you mean cute but not beautiful? I didn't mean to say you aren't beautiful, you are! I mean, your eyes are the prettiest I've ever seen, your hair is really nice and all in all you I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for Yang's overprotectiveness you'd be giving her a run for her money!"

A `polite` cough made him realize that he was being watched by most of the other occupants of the room, Yang included. A pretty pissed off Yang, even if it seemed like she wasn't pissed _just_ at him… maybe Ruby had done something to earn her ire? Well, he'd be damned if he knew what was going on.

Meanwhile Ruby… her train of thoughts was pretty easy to guess. _'Ohmygosh, he called me cute and beautiful! It's just like in the books Yang reads me! What should I do? Should I compliment him back? Yang said that's the way to go… or maybe should I just kiss him already? Nononono, I can't do that!'_

"Ruby, are you okay?" Jaune asked worriedly. "You've been staring at my chestplate for a while now."

"I think you're handsome too!" she blurted out, blushing beet red.

"W-What? I haven't quite heard-"

"I think you're handsome too," she repeated fidgeting nervously. It didn't help she was _still sitting on his lap_ -but damn if he was comfortable, she could get used to it-, and she kept taking glances at him before looking away again. "Your eyes are really nice, your hair looks like gold and your personality is truly the one of a knight. Plus you're really well-built, not massive but really fit. I-I'm just returning the favour," she quickly added, her face impossibly red. She groaned. "Forget I said anything, I'm so awkward."

Unbeknownst to everyone, a never-used synapsis in Jaune's brain finally woke up, stretched and yawned. Taking in the info from its sister synapsis, Jeyin (yep, even his synapsis' names start with a J) finally did its job and called for an alert, waking up several other synapsis and putting them to work. Finally, after two seconds of hard processing, a thought flashed across Jaune's mind. _'Ruby has a crush on me.'_ Then the synapsis all cheered at the well done work.

 _'Ruby has a crush on me…'_ he repeated in his mind. _'Yang is gonna_ _ **kill me!**_ _"_

"Has anyone else heard a _ding_?" asked Nora, only getting shrugs in response. "Like when in movies someone just realizes something they've been missing all along? No? Aww…"

 **He sighed and kneeled down in front of her with his back to her, "Sure. Get on." She leant against his back and gently wrapped her arms around his neck. He gently held her legs and when she was secure, he stood up and started making their way to the dorms. Jaune was sure Ruby fell back asleep until halfway to the dorms he felt her giggling.**

 **"What's so funny?" he asked turning his head to see her.**

 **"Just glad I got you to carry me." She smirked.**

"Wait a minute…"

 **"Wait a minute, you tricked me?" he said flabbergasted.**

 **"Maybe." Was her only response with her tongue sticking out playfully.**

"You played me!" exclaimed Jaune, outraged… but not so much. The girl merely shrugged with a small smile on her still blushing face.

 _'Of course she has a crush on me, how could I have_ _ **not**_ _noticed? Was I really that dense?'_

 **"Hmmmm. And why shouldn't I drop you?"**

 **"Because you're not that mean."**

 **Jaune turned his head back to look where he was going, "You're just lucky you're so light." She giggled more at that. Jaune walked for a bit longer before he spoke again. "Since I'm carrying you and you tricked me, I say that you owe me an answer to a question."**

 **"That sounds fair." she said still very amused.**

 **Jaune took a minute to figure out how to phrase it. "What's up with you and Yang? You've been a little annoyed with her lately." Ruby was quiet. Jaune thought she wasn't going to answer, so he decided not to push. Until he felt her bury her face into his back and mumbled something. "I'm sorry, what was that?"**

 **Ruby turned her head slightly, "I'm not annoyed. I'm worried." Before he could ask she continued. "You were my first friend here, Jaune, I'm worried you're going to replace me with Yang. She's cooler, older, prettier and you gave her a nickname. Why wouldn't you want her to replace me?"**

"Ruby…" He swallowed. Talking to her without knowing of her crush had been a lot easier. "Yang's not gonna replace you. You're both my friends. Heck, without any offence to Yang, but frankly we've hung out far more than I and Yang have."

"Yang and I," corrected Weiss.

"But she…"

"No buts, you're two different people, none of you is replaceable." Jaune gave her a look he usually reserved for misbehaving sisters. "And this is final. Plus, she's not cooler or prettier than you, she's just pretty in a different way. And the nickname thing was just something thrown in the bunch to make number."

"Wow, you really know how to handle this, don't you?" asked Sun.

"I have seven sisters and uncountable cousins. My sisters were always worried I'd take to hang out with my cousins more than with them." He snorted a laugh. "And they made up the most ridiculous excuses too."

"But I'd still like a nickname," murmured Ruby.

"Well then, wanna get a nickname? I have to warn you, it'll stick no matter what," said Jaune.

"As long as it's not Crater Face…" grumbled the girl. "I think it's fine."

"If you say so…" He thought hard for a second, and promptly came back blank. The others could _hear_ the gears whirring in his mind.

"Little Flower?" offered Blake.

"I don't want to use the obvious flower nickname," he snorted. "That's too easy… what about… Gemshine?"

There was a beat of silence before everyone but Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune exploded into laughters, the latter instead frowning unamused. "Seriously, Vomi- sorry, _Knightly Angel_ , is this all you can do?"

He pouted. "Hey, I think it fits her. First her name is the one of a gem, plus a gem is something precious, a ruby especially so, and she surely is precious to me and to all of us. The ruby is also related to passion and protection, two things I can easily relate to Ruby." He took a second for the other part of the nickname. "Shine because Ruby is like a ray of sunshine in a world of darkness, with her innocence and, I'll admit it, naivety. She wants to make Remnant a better world and we all know that all forms of life needs the sunshine to survive."

The laughters had stopped, except for the ones of a certain bully. Now a very awkward silence hung on the room.

Ozpin decided to help out his new favourite students. At first it was Ruby his favourite, since he thought that watching her fumble through her time in Beacon would've been both funny and touching. But then Jaune had walked into the picture, and the spot had been taken in a heartbeat. "You certainly show that your sister is not the only one with a knack for poetry, Mr Arc. Your words were well-chosen, and I for one certainly approve of the nickname. As always, good job, Mr Arc."

"I… er…"

 **Jaune was shocked. "Ruby." He sighed before continuing. "You're a fool." He felt he jump up slightly. "Yang might be that but you're my first friend I made besides Ren and Nora. No matter what happens or who I meet, that'll never change." He turned to her and smiled. "That's another reason why you're precious to me."**

 **Ruby stared at him for a second before she had a massive smile. "Thanks, Jaune, I needed to hear that."**

 **He patted her head before turning his head again, "Anytime."**

 **They were quiet for a bit before Ruby spoke up again. "Can I ask you a question?"**

 **"Do you even need to ask?"**

 **He could feel her fingers fiddling with each other by his neck before she started speaking nervously, "You were saying how the others were beautiful. Well, umm, do you see me like that?"**

 **"Yes. Sometimes I see you and you just look adorable and I know you know you are." He smirked before he continued. "Your hair is also beautiful, the red and black frames your face very well. Also, your still two years younger but there is no doubt that in no time you'll give Yang a run for her money. But, most of all are your eyes. Their silver color is beautiful and almost hypnotic. They clearly show all the happiness and hope you hold inside you. So, yes Ruby, you're beautiful." He turned to look at her and saw she was staring wide eyed at him with her face as red as her hood. He turned back around so she could get her senses back. They were almost to their rooms when she spoke again.**

 **"Jaune?"**

 **"Yes, Ruby?" He turned his head and felt her lips press against his cheek. She quickly buried her face back into his back before she held him a little tighter with a content smile and a small blush. He blushed slightly but than he smiled. She didn't say anything and neither did he. They just enjoyed the time they had with each other before they'd have to call it a night.**

"That was just _sooo_ cute!" exclaimed Sun, even as everyone continued to stare at the blond knight, who could only fidget awkwardly.

Suddenly, though, another blonde shot up from her seat.

"Jaune, it's time to spar a little," exclaimed Yang, both saving him from the embarrassment and condemning him. Her eyes were just a little red… "You said after you did your armour thing with Pyrrha so come on!"

Without waiting for anyone to react, she pushed Ruby off Jaune and grabbed his arm before bolting out of the room. A blushing but annoyed Ruby landed on the floor _again_ as all the stares turned to her.

Safe outside the room, Yang turned to Jaune like a giant T-Rex turning to a little wolf puppy. Sure, both species were classified as hunters, but hell if the T-Rex wasn't more intimidating. And the two humans were both training to become Hunters, but hell if Yang wasn't evidently scarier.

"So, Jaune…" she began lightly. "Do you have a crush on my little sister?"

Jaune choked and stumbled at the same time, almost successfully face-planting into the floor, and was promptly saved by Yang. Although maybe face-planting wouldn't have been such a bad idea, since the alternative was answering Yang's question. "Ehm… No! Of course not, why would you even think-"

"Jaune, you're rambling," noted Yang, her now red eyes deadpanning at him.

"I'm not lyin… I mean rambling!" He coughed, both embarrassed and scared. "Er… W-Why would I l-like Ruby? I-I mean, she's a good friend b-but-"

"I'm not gonna get angry," sighed Yang, her eyes finally turning back to lilac. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him. "If you like her, it's fine. As long as you don't try to take advantage of her, I'm not gonna get angry. You might not be the best Huntsman around but you're still a guy with the heart in the right place. Qrow might very well murder you outright but I am protective of Ruby not in the `kill any guy near her` way. In the `make sure she's happy` way."

Jaune's blush didn't go away, but he found himself smiling softly at her, clearing seeing the love Yang had for her sister. "I knew you were a good older sister," he told her before sighing and looking at the floor. "So… I frankly am not completely sure. I mean, Ruby's a great friend and…"

"Are you friendzoning her?" asked Yang.

"That's not what I meant," Jaune hurried to say. "No, the fact she's a friend is good. She's very nice, can't say she's not pretty, and caring and all. I'm sure she'd be a perfect girlfriend, even if she has a flaw or two like anyone." He stopped for a second before sighing again, this time more deeply. "Can't say the same for me."

"That you wouldn't make for a good girlfriend?" teased Yang.

"You know what I mean," he grumbled, shooting her a dirty look. "She's amazing and I'm just… well, me. I know I'm not the worst candidate ever but… how am I even supposed to think I'd ever be good enough for her?"

Yang stared at him for a second before sighing. Really, she felt like _his_ older sister too, sometimes. "Okay, cut the crap. First off there's no such thing as `good enough` in love. You can be a piece of shit and still be liked. There's only if the other likes you or not, and this goes for guys as well as girls," she said. "But more importantly, I'm tired of hearing you put yourself down like that. From what Pyrrha told us you're learning very quickly thus showing you have talent. Plus your strategy skills are good as well. Frankly you're not half bad in the looks department, plus you're a caring individual. Cheer up, you don't need to be a god to ask a girl out. So, should I expect you two to be a couple soon enough?"

Jaune bit his lip as he thought about her words, and about her question. Finally, he sighed. "Thanks for the encouragement, Yang. Never thought I'd get a morale boost from you of all people… even if now that I think of it I should've seen it coming." He chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. "I… I'll think about it. I'm not too sure how I should handle it, but… I think I will ask her out. Or, well… confess to her since there are not really places where we could go on a date. So… yes, I think so."

Yang smiled. "Well then, Knight, get your butt in the arena and get ready, because we're gonna spar!" she exclaimed, pushing him through the door of the changing room. "I'll be right behind you, and no I'm not going to tell Ruby."

A second later, though, her smile fell. "Well, to quote myself, things just got complicated."

 ** _Haha! Is Jaune really going to ask Ruby out? Or is he going to realize what he feels for her is just friendship?_**

 ** _Well, if you know me you'll know I never back down from writing Lancaster._**

 ** _Anyway, I know this'll probably be sudden but I'm trying. Goodwitch will stop being the bitch I portrayed her as, but it'll take her a chapter or two away from the group to think about it. Tell me if you think what I did is too forced._**

 ** _And finally... everyone cheer Jaune's newly awoken synapsis! He's finally starting to get over his denseness! It took him a girl sitting on his lap for... what? Five viewings already?... and telling him he's a really nice person and is handsome too to catch on, but he's finally done it! A round of applauses for our dork Knight!_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	15. Chapter 14

**_Ohoh! Here I am! Did you miss me? Of course you didn't, who would miss a sarcastic asshole such as myself... wait, you did? And you? You too?! What?! Everyone here missed me?! Well, then I guess you all earned this new chapter!_**

 ** _Oh, and you also earned not one, but TWO Omakes at the end!_**

"Where is Mr Arc?"

Everyone was startled as Goodwitch's stern voice rang out in the silence, interrupting their rest. Most of the students were reading the copy of Ninjas of Love so graciously granted them by Blake's order. The others had instead just ordered some more food. As long as they had Aura to avoid them to lose fitness, they could eat tons of food and the only negative result would show up during their next trip to the bathroom.

Ruby was the first to blink the surprise out of her system and reply. "He's… training, I think? With Yang."

The blonde professor nodded once before sitting down on her couch. "I'll wait for him, then. I have something very important to tell him." She raised an eyebrow at them when they all gave her worried stares… except for Cardin, who looked gleeful. "And yes, it regards his fake transcripts and his admission into Beacon."

Just as it looked like Cardin's grin couldn't get any wider, two more blondes entered the room, both clearly freshly showered, although both of them's eyes were visibly widened in something like shock. They walked up to their couches without a word, plopping down still without a word, and didn't even reply to the greetings of the others. Ruby promptly reclaimed her spot on Jaune's lap, igniting a fierce blush on his face, and looked at him with worry. "Jaune, are you okay?"

"I… yeah, I am, just… a little overwhelmed," he explained with a little laugh. "N-Nothing to worry about. I'll tell you guys later, okay?"

No one was really convinced, but Yang piped in as well. "Seriously guys, it's… nothing to worry about." She shrugged a little. "Just something that happened during our training earlier, we'll show you guys later."

"Mr Arc." All conversations froze as the blond knight turned to the professor. "I wanted to talk with you."

"O-Okay?" he meekly replied, almost gulping in fear.

"I wanted to apologize for my recent behaviour, and I wanted to make up for it." The professor smirked at their shell-shocked expression, no one more so than Jaune himself. He tried to stutter out something, _anything_ really, but she beat him to it. "I've thought about it and, indeed, you show a lot of potential. My behaviour, earlier, was inadmissible. Thankfully I got called out on it, but maybe I took too much time thinking about it. So I wanted to make it up to you."

"W-What?" squeaked Jaune. _'Palm, meet face,'_ thought most of the people in the room as several smacks rang out. _'Suaveness, thy name is Jaune.'_

"I've gotten rid of your fake transcripts and replaced them with other transcripts, signed by me personally. Phoenix was gracious enough to allow me to add them into Beacon's database," she explained without missing a beat. "After all, fake transcripts are simply transcripts not signed by a figure of power. Thankfully, I do have the authority to compile transcripts. As of now, you are officially a student of Beacon, accepted for `exceptional potential and special status`. Welcome to Beacon, Mr Arc. I do hope you will find our academy to be up to your expectations." She delivered the last comment with a little smirk.

Too stunned by the news, Jaune didn't get register that _Professor Glynda Goodwitch_ had just joked. Fortunately, he didn't have to. A red and a yellow blur smashed into him, tackling him onto the ground. Immediately afterwards, a pink blur forcefully dragging a white blur, a black blur and a green blur jumped over the already downed knight, burying him under seven students.

Blue looked down to meet silver, lilac, green, ice, amber, magenta and turquoise. Eight sets of eyes blinked. Then Nora smirked as she gestured to Weiss, Blake and Ren. "Group hug!"

"Uhm… guys?" Blake called out, pointing at where Jaune was supposed to be, under the group. "Are we trying to kill Jaune?"

"Get off, you dolts!" shouted Weiss, untangling herself from the mass of students piled on the knocked over couch. "And let him breathe!"

Following her example, most of the others got up as well. Ruby had been squashed against Jaune's chest, while Yang was hanging from his right arm, with Pyrrha holding the left one. Jaune himself had stars and little corgis circling around his head, but he quickly shook off the daze to look at the three beauties still not getting up. He blinked as his newly awakened synapsis sighed and started to work all over again.

Yang and Pyrrha chose that moment to jump off him, their cheeks blushing aflame, and stuttered some half-baked excuse. Jaune nodded absent-mindedly before gently moving Ruby from his chest, much to her displeasure, and standing up. "Uh… just… j-just give me a second okay?" he said to no one as he rushed out of the room.

Once he was alone, he asked for a pillow and caught it as it fell from the ceiling. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at the object and steeled himself. "I may be wrong, but…" Closing his eyes, he took the jump. "YANG AND PYRRHA HAVE-MMMMPPPPHHHHHFFFFFTTT!"

There, he had said it. Into the pillow, but he had said it. Yang and Pyrrha alike had crushes on him, with Ruby _still_ crushing on him for some unfathomable reason. His synapsis had just woken up, and it already wanted to retire. Too much work to do in there.

He calmly and collectedly walked back into the Watching Hall, the pillow abandoned into a corridor, a small smile playing on his lips and eyes glinting partially with mirth and partially with confidence. Living in a house with seven sisters had made him a great actor, after all. To everyone, he looked like he'd just been told a joke and laughed a little about it. Inwardly, he was basically shaking with nervousness.

He could handle Ruby having a crush on him. Still not really understanding how that miracle had happened, but he knew not to question miracles. But Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang?! No way. He was going to shut up and try not to worsen the situation.

Yang watched with a little jealousy as Ruby settled back on his lap, the spot having become basically _her_ seat by then. She didn't exactly want to be on Jaune's lap, that wasn't her style, but close? That, yep. She was torn from her thoughts when a small flame appeared in front of her, dropping a note on her lap. She frowned as she picked it up, only for her face to blush bright red at the content of the note.

 _"Sharing is caring. ;)"_

 _'S-Shar-Sharing…'_ Her eyes widened to comical proportions. _'Nope! N-Nopenopenope! I'm totally not thinking about sharing Jaune! Not with Ruby, not with_ _ **anyone!**_ _Nope! Not thinking about it! Not thinking, not thinking, noooooot thiiiiinkiiiiiing!'_

"Yang, are you okay?" asked Blake.

"I'm not thinking!" reflexively replied the blonde. "I am NOT thinking!"

There was a beat of silence as a fly passed in the air above them, the sound loud enough to be heard in the quiet. Then, a few snorted a laugh, while the others just sighed not really knowing what to do of the blonde's weird response.

Finally, the screen started up.

 **Jaune woke up early the next morning, even for him. He checked his scroll and saw that it was 5 in the morning. He debated going back to sleep but decided against it. This was the perfect time to go to the roof and watch the sunrise. He got out of bed and silently stretched before sliding on his shoes and silently leaving the room without waking his team. He made his way to the dorm's common room to get some coffee before heading to watch the sunrise. He made a pot of coffee and filled a mug before he made his way to the roof. Once there he sat on the edge and waited for the sun. He was sipping at his coffee and it reminded him of the times he'd do the same with his teacher. He smiled slightly before he heard the door open. He turned to see a very sleepy Pyrrha standing there. She was wearing her pajamas, which was a t-shirt too big for her and shorts.**

"Aww, Pyrrha, you're adorable!" cooed Nora, trapping the taller redhead in an affectionate headlock. "Look at you! Not at Ruby's level but you're close! It must be something in the red hair!"

"It really must be," nodded Ren. "You too are really cute when you're all sleepy in the morning."

Nora froze, Pyrrha still trapped, as a fierce blush covered her cheeks. Reigning that in, she merely tapped Ren on the nose, earning a little smile from him. "Boop."

 **He smiled at her, "Morning. Did I wake you?"**

 **She shook her head and made her way to Jaune, "No, I had to use the bathroom and noticed you were missing. Why are you up this early?"**

 **He pointed to the horizon, "Waiting for the sunrise. Wanna join me?" She nodded and sat next to him, she shivered slightly and yawned. Jaune held his coffee up to her. "This may help with waking you up and keeping you warm.**

 **She looked at the cup then at Jaune, "You sure?"**

 **He nodded, "Yeah. Although, it's black so it might be bitter."**

 **"I don't mind and thank you." She smiled as she took the cup. She blushed right after she took a sip because she realized she just got an indirect kiss from Jaune. She looked back to Jaune and he was smiling at her.**

"Come on, the indirect kiss trick is cheap!" exclaimed Sun, crossing his arms. "They're watching the sunrise together and yet she's blushing about an indirect kiss. Oum only knows how many `indirect kisses` our team got from each other because we never bothered to wash the dishes!"

"That's highly unhealthy," commented Winter, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, it's not like we're gonna die of infection!" protested the monkey Faunus. "It's just a few dishes from time to time!"

"Do you even know the meaning of the word `discipline`?" huffed the specialist. "You're supposed to be the future protectors of the world. Who do you think you can save, if you can't even handle your own dishes?"

"Unless I'm seriously mistaken, I think I am not, all your dishes are washed by military personnel, Ms Schnee," Ozpin pointed out with a smirk. "Just for you to keep it in mind."

 **"That any better?"**

 **She nodded, "It's helping. It's still a bit a chilly though." Before she knew what was going on, Jaune had slid right next to her and put his arm around her. She blushed intensely, "Jaune, what are you doing?!"**

 **He looked at her. "Keeping you warm. Can't have my partner getting sick, right?" He smiled at her and she bashfully nodded before drinking a bit more of the coffee, still blushing. Not long after that the two were watching the sun rising above the horizon of Vale. The sky was a perfect combination of red and gold. The two sat in a comfortable silence, Jaune unconsciously pulled Pyrrha closer to him and she instinctively leaned into him more. The silence was broken a bit later when the sunrise was practically over. "Well, I have to say, that was probably one of the top three sunrises I've seen."**

"Honestly, Vale doesn't really have the best sunrises," said Sun. "When the Sun comes up in Vacuo, it flames up the sky with red and pink and bronze. Those are breath-taking."

"In Atlas, at daybreak, you can see the auroras," boasted Weiss. "I used to watch them every day… without Father knowing, of course."

"Jaune, have you ever watched dawn while flying so to get a higher view?" asked Neptune, the question both curious and holding a vein of viciousness.

Jaune darkened a bit at the mention of flying but then sighed and smiled. "More or less. My sisters loved to be brought up so I had to do the heavy lifting. Although when I was really young I wanted to try and touch the sun as it rose, but I could never get close enough." He chuckled. "I wasn't really all that bright."

"You still aren't," grunted Cardin, and promptly got a boot to the head secretly thrown by Ozpin himself.

 _'Rude,'_ thought the unflappable Headmaster.

Yang, instead, was just staring at Jaune. "D-Did you just make a pun?" she asked, shocked. In the back of her mind, Jaune's rating went up by twenty.

 **Pyrrha looked at him, "How many have you seen?"**

 **He shrugged, "I've lost count. My teacher was an earlier riser than me and we started watching them together." He smiled at that.**

 **She smiled back, "You must really care about her."**

 **"I do." Before the conversation could continue, Jaune stole back his coffee from Pyrrha and started drinking it.**

"Hey!" exclaimed the redhead, turning to Jaune, who jokingly ordered a coffee and began drinking it nonchalantly. "Give that back!"

"Tell that to him, not me," was his casual reply, although his mouth was twitching up, trying to hold a smirk.

 **"Hey! I thought you gave that to me?" She was slightly annoyed at that and she was blushing because now Jaune was having an indirect kiss from her.**

"Come on! Cheap!"

 **"I did but I decided to take it back." He smirked at her and drank the last of the coffee. Pyrrha tried to get the mug back but Jaune moved it just out of her reach. She kept reaching and Jaune kept it just out of her reach until the two fell back on the roof. Pyrrha was now on top of him and when she rose up slightly, Jaune had his breath taken away. There was Pyrrha with her hair still down, set just in front of the rising sun. Giving her hair and herself an angelic glow. She looked absolutely gorgeous. The way Jaune was looking at her was causing her to blush more. He reached up to brush a strand of hair behind her ear and the two just stared at each other. Jaune finally found his voice and he found himself nervous. "We may wanna get ready for the day."**

"I may have gotten this wrong, but is Jauney Boy lusted after by _three_ women now?" asked Cardin, shocked and, frankly, quite annoyed by the fact. "Three women who are most probably among the top ten hottest girls in the school?"

"It would seem so, Mr Winchester," nodded Ironwood, sipping his alcoholic coffee. "They are charmed by his power and, more specifically, his Semblance. A strong partner is always the one searched by women. Although I doubt Mr Arc here could be liked by anyone. His combat score is the lowest in the Academy, and if that wasn't enough he's a forger. Forgery is a crime punishable with jail."

Several hands tightened into fists at the words of the General, but most didn't dare argue with him. Ozpin and Goodwitch alike where about to give him a piece of their minds when someone else spoke up, glaring at the man.

"If that's what you think love is, then I'm not surprised to know you've never found a partner," Jaune spat out, disgusted by his view. "Pyrrha, Yang and Ruby… actually, Weiss, Blake and Nora too… don't need a _strong partner_. They can hold their own quite efficiently. Love isn't based on strength. Don't ask me what it's based on because I don't know. Love is just something you realize you've been feeling, not something you can _choose_." He stood up, holding Ruby in his arms as he did before setting her down on the couch. Everyone was still stunned by the sheer amount of raw venom in his voice. It looked like he had turned back into his previous dark self, with a vengeance. He stormed over to the General and leaned in until they were face-to-face. "I _know_ that none of my friends are that shallow. They are amazing people, and if they fall in love, I'm sure they will fall in love with the right person. Not because of stupid things like power or strength."

He walked away from the General with an utterly self-satisfied smirk on his face, sitting down on his couch and pulling Ruby back on his lap, the grin never leaving his face. It was clear that the boy had supremely enjoyed what amounted to flipping off the General.

Ironwood stood shocked for a second. Military hadn't left much for a love life, so it wasn't Jaune's opinion on the matter that had shocked him. No, he could actually agreed that what he'd said was a stupid, quite male-chauvinist, and ignorant. But the tone… he had earned his place as General of Atlas, and Headmaster of Atlas Academy, and he would _not_ allow a _civilian_ to speak to him like that. He made to rise angrily, but a purple glow kept him from moving. Turning to his right, he saw both Goodwitch and Ozpin shake their heads with severe expressions. Temporarily giving up, the man fell back on his couch. _'He'll learn respect, one way or another,'_ he promised.

 **Pyrrha was brought back to reality with that. She nodded before she got up and offered her hand to help Jaune up which he accepted. He picked up the mug as she said, "We do have that field trip to Forever Fall today."**

 **Jaune snapped his fingers and nodded his head at that. "Right, I knew I was forgetting something. Well, in that case, I'll make breakfast for our team and RWBY."**

 **They were making their way back to the dorm and Pyrrha looked at him in slight shock, "I didn't know you could cook?"**

 **"Both Ren and I do. Nora tried to learn but it just never worked out." He shuddered slightly at the memory.**

"Eheh…" Nora smiled innocently at the others.

Ren sighed. "She tried to bake pancakes, using milk mixed with her grenade's Dust powder to make the syrup. You can guess what happened after that."

"BOOOOOM!" shouted the hammer maiden, throwing her hands in the air. "But I gave Ren a new tan!"

"So that's why you forbid her from even entering the kitchen while we're cooking…" nodded Jaune. "I guess all versions of Nora make disasters when cooking…"

"Probably," nodded the other male.

"Wait, wait, wait!" exclaimed Blake. "`We`? As in… Ren and _you?_ You know how to cook? I get Ren since… well, since Nora… but why you too?"

"Well yeah," he nodded. "I mean, my mother taught me everything she knew about housekeeping while my father trained me. So that I wouldn't blow up my house a month after moving out of the family's household. That included dancing for some reason, cooking, sewing, gardening, house chores like laundry, dishes and sweeping, and all that stuff. I was home-educated so I had a lot of time to learn that alongside more normal stuff. I never liked Maths, though."

"No one likes Maths," said Sun. Somewhere in another dimension, a boy stopped typing for a second and sneezed for apparently no reason.

Unbeknownst to Jaune, Ozpin shook his head. _'You just threw yourself at the sharks, Mr Arc.'_ He glanced at the entranced girls, all of which prodigal fighters but disasters at housekeeping. _'Or should I say, at the ladies?'_

 **They arrived at their dorm room, Jaune went to open the door and as he did he was tackled by Nora. She ran into him harder than she thought and with Jaune not expecting it they both fell backwards with him hitting his head against the wall next to RWBY's dorm with an audible thump. Jaune's head was spinning with that and his head was so jumbled he couldn't make out what she was saying, he just knew she was being loud. He put his hand over her mouth as he was gripping his head. "Nora, stop. My head is killing me, let my aura fix this first." She nodded as he took his hand away and was waiting for his aura to fix his pounding head.**

A few sighed at Nora's antics. In their own universe she hadn't given any of them a concussion… _yet_ … but her endless reserves of energy were more than tiring, they were killer-exhausting.

"Nora, please don't do that to me," pleaded Jaune, paling a bit at the loud bang.

"No promises," she innocently smiled.

"Nora!"

"Fine, Ren. I won't break our Fearless Knight!" She smiled disarmingly at everyone.

"What, did I just get an upgrade?" asked the mentioned knight.

"Yup!"

 **The door next to them opened and RWBY came out, minus Yang. They saw Jaune laying on the ground holding his head and Nora next to him. Ruby was instantly by his side. "Jaune, are you alright?" she asked.**

 **"Yeah. I hit my head but my aura is already dealing with it." He placed his hand on the wall and leaned on it to help him stand. "I should be fine. Sorry if I woke you three."**

 **"It's okay." Ruby replied. "As long as you're okay."**

 **"I'm still annoyed that I was rudely awoken." Weiss said slightly above a whisper.**

 **Jaune heard this though. "Breakfast will make up for it. My treat."**

 **Nora was hugging him now. "You're gonna make breakfast, Jaune? Awesome! You make the best breakfast!" Jaune patted her head with a smile.**

 **"I was gonna make breakfast for my team and was going to invite you girls as well. Interested?"**

 **"What are we having?" Weiss asked.**

 **"Eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and maybe pancakes if Ren is up for it." He turned to his dorm to see Ren leaning on the door frame. No one even notice him appear. He thought for a second and nodded. "Great. Plus, there's orange juice, milk and coffee already made in the common room."**

By that point, most Watchers were basically drooling. Being a Huntsman usually meant being able to cook some very basic meal while camping in the wild, but none of them was really _good_ at cooking. Except a couple of them, obviously. Jaune was about to comment about the breakfast, but he had the inkling that if he had, then he would then need to run _really_ fast from _very_ hungry girls. And not hungry of food.

 **"Is there tea?" Blake asked. Jaune nodded.**

 **"So what time is breakfast?" Ruby asked.**

 **Jaune pulled out his scroll, it was 6:15 "Let's say, 7:30?" He looked up at everyone and they all nodded. With that they all went back to their rooms, Jaune made sure to pick up the mug he dropped and set it on his desk to bring it back. Around 7 both teams were making their way to the common room. Everyone sat down while Jaune and Ren started cooking while the girls set the table. Jaune placed the plates of food down in the center with the gallon of milk, carton of orange juice, pot of coffee and kettle of tea so everyone could help themselves. Everyone pretty much grabbed a little of everything, except for Nora who had a whole stack of pancakes for herself. When the meal was over everyone was satisfied.**

 **"Wow, Hero. You're one hell of a cook." Yang said.**

 **Jaune was enjoying his third cup of coffee, "Thank you, Sun Fire." He smiled at her. "I'm just glad I went to Vale to pick up everything a few days ago."**

 **"You had this all planned out, impressive." Weiss added.**

 **"I'm not just a warrior, nice guy and semi decent in the looks department, Snow Angel."**

 **"Semi decent?" Yang questioned.**

"Semi decent?" five girls repeated, partly disappointed in his not-so-great view of himself, and partly just curious as to why he said that. After all, he couldn't deny he was one of the handsomest boys in the Academy. There were more than a few girls after his ass, so to speak.

 **Jaune shrugged. "I don't see what some people do. I honestly don't think I look all that great."**

 **"Well you do." Everyone turned to Ruby as she said that. With all the attention and the memory from the night before she blushed.**

"Ditto." Five girls, _the_ five girls from earlier, exchanged glances before all glancing at Jaune. No one saw anything.

 **Jaune smiled at her. "Thank you, Ruby. I think you earned another batch of those cookies."**

 **Next thing he knew Ruby appeared in his lap in a flurry of rose petals. "Really?"**

 **Jaune nodded, "Although, I used all the chocolate chips last time. So, I'll have to break up some chocolate bars to substitute them. That alright?"**

 **She nodded and gently laid her head on his chest as she hugged him, "That's perfect." Jaune smiled and everyone else just stared at this new sight. Yang and Pyrrha had slightly annoyed looks for obvious reasons. The touching scene was interrupted when Nora snapped a picture of them on her scroll.**

Everyone else awwed as well, no one more than Sun himself. No one even glanced at him any more, by then used to his romantic preferences. Jaune, though, lost his smile when he heard what sounded much like a possessive hiss coming from Blake. Her stoic expression was still in place, but like he had learned how to read Ren, he could see that the girl was annoyed. About what, he couldn't figure out. In his head, a certain synapsis was having lunch break.

 **"This is sooo cute!" She shouted.**

 **Ruby buried her face into Jaune's shirt and Jaune gave her an annoyed look. "Really, Nora? Another picture?" She just nodded with a huge grin. Jaune sighed, "Same for the last, just don't send it around the school." He drank the last of his coffee and checked his scroll for the time. "Well, we have some time before we have to meet Goodwitch. Wanna head to the locker room to grab our gear?" Everyone agreed and they started making their way there. Before Jaune was out the door, someone small jumped on his back. He turned and his eyes met silver. "Ruby?"**

 **"Yes, Jaune?" she said cheerily.**

 **"Do I really need to carry you again?"**

 **"Please." she asked adorably.**

 **He sighed again and started walking while carrying her. "So lucky you're cute."**

"Jaune?"

"Yes, Ruby?"

The girl fidgeted a little on his lap, a small blush on her face. "I was thinking… since Ozpin is going to buy you new wings, could you… after we go back to Remnant, could you… carry me up in the sky?" Her blush intensified as he stared at her, puzzled. "I-I mean, I'd l-like to feel you-I m-mean to feel how f-flying is!"

Jaune caught her small slip, red crawling up to his cheeks, but he tried to clear his head. With Yang and Pyrrha most probably feeling _something_ for him, he would need to be careful. But Oum if he didn't miss the times when he was just an oblivious guy who didn't have to deal with the problems of heart. "O-Of course, Ruby," he smiled at her. "A-Anytime."

She beamed at him, and his heartbeat quickened. He glanced at Yang's and Pyrrha's slightly jealous expressions, and he felt his chest tighten. All three of them were so amazing and wonderful people… how was he supposed to choose and break the other two's hearts?

 **She pumped her fist with a small blush at that. Yang and Pyrrha walked next to them analyzing and wondering just what the hell happened between those two. They all arrived at the locker room, they grabbed their gear and made their way to where they were supposed to meet Goodwitch. Once Team CRDL showed up, they made their way to Forever Fall. Jaune could feel Cardin staring at him but he just ignored him. He was done with wasting energy on him.**

 **Once they reached a certain spot, Goodwitch started giving them their instructions. "Alright students, Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so. Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay with your teammates. We will rendezvous back here later. Have fun!"**

"Does Ms Goodwitch even know what `fun` means?" whispered Ruby, and Jaune chuckled.

"Ms Rose, Mr Arc, I can assure you I _do_ know what fun is," she replied stiffly. "Who do you think set the record for most points scored in Remnant Aflame?"

"Wait, _you_ are _QueenOfHearts_?!" exclaimed Yang, shocked. And for a good reason, the _QueenOfHearts_ was her IDOL! She read all her comments, all her posts and watched all her game sessions! And she was freaking Professor _freaking_ Glynda _**freaking**_ Goodwitch!

"I do believe that to be my username, yes." The woman allowed herself a rare small smirk, amused by her students' shock. "You have much to learn before you can challenge me."

 **Team CRDL split off from the other two teams but they didn't really care. They were all enjoying their time and were leisurely gathering the sap. Until Nora got mad at Ren for not letting her drink more of it and threw the tap higher up the tree than any of them could grab it. Jaune was about to climb the tree when someone else jumped on his back and he almost fell face first into the tree. He managed to correct himself but the person almost fell off his back. He reflexively went to grab their legs to prevent that but his hand went a bit higher than he intended. Jaune blushed but before he could move his hands, the person leaned forward and whispered into his ear. "Didn't think you had it in you, Hero."**

Jaune gaped at the screen with a mighty blush on his cheeks. Yang was hiding her face in her hands, but she was also secretly smiling, not sure if she should worry about being so satisfied of having gotten Jaune to grab her ass or not. Ruby pouted and sulked while Pyrrha's grip on the armrests increased tenfold.

"I-… I-… I-…" Jaune continued to squeak.

"I think that broke him," sighed Ren, shaking his head.

Yang chuckled embarrassedly, but she couldn't let the opportunity slip. Both of teasing and… maybe something else. "What's the matter, Knight?" she smirked at him, using her hands to push up her breasts. "Disappointed you grabbed my ass instead of this?"

 _Thud._

 _'Ding'._

 _'Restart. exe not accessible. Please insert emergency password to unlock file Jaune. pps, or restart the system. Please remember that a file pps (Psyche Processor System) can only be opened using a Psyche Processor Unit (PPU). Have a nice day.'_

"…I think I broke him…"

 **Jaune blushed deeper. "I didn't mean to, Yang, and why did you jump on my back?"**

 **"So I could reach the tap." She smirked and slowly started to move to stand on his shoulders and started to reach for it. Jaune was trying to keep them balanced but when Yang jerked the tap out, she slipped slightly and fell. Jaune moved and caught her in his arms bridal style.**

 **He looked down at her, "You okay?"**

 **She had a slight blush but nodded. He set her down and as she stood she leaned close to his ear. "You didn't grab my ass this time. Shame." She smirked and Jaune blushed again before he sighed. Jaune then heard what sounded like something flying through the air. He looked and before he knew it a glass jar of sap hit the tree behind them and a lot got on him.**

Cardin began to sweat under everyone's glares. Somehow, he felt like even the walls and the screen were glaring at him. "I… it was just a prank!"

"A possibly very dangerous prank, Mr Winchester," glowered Goodwitch.

"What?! He could've handled that!" exclaimed the boy. "I mean, you've been showering him with praise up until now and now you are so worried about this being dangerous?"

 **"Really?" Before he could complain anymore, he heard the sound of buzzing and saw a swarm of Rapier Wasps flying at them. He quickly started to run away from the others and they started to chase him. "Good, they're attracted to the sap." Once he was a good distance away from the others he faced the swarm and applied pressure with his right middle finger for Kakiri's handle to be deployed. He reached his fingers to the handle but didn't draw the sword. He activated his Semblance and his eyes shifted to crimson. As the swarm was practically on him, he focused his fire enhanced aura to start heating the air around him. Right as the swarm was about to attack, the air around Jaune burst into flames and the swarm was incinerated while the sap still on him was burnt away. Jaune exhaled and his eyes shifted back to normal. He was about to meet back with the others when he felt pain shooting through his neck. He reached up and pulled out a Rapier Wasp. "Damn it." He dropped it to the ground and stomped on it.**

"That's not good," said Weiss. "Rapier Wasps' venoms can vary, but they're all usually painful. Sometimes also paralysing. Let's hope he will receive healing soon."

"All this fuss over a little puncture," grumbled Cardin before something stung his neck. "What the heck!?"

"I was tired of throwing boots at you, so I asked for a large needle," grinned Yang, holding up another mini-spear of metal. "Wanna get the second in the face?"

 **He gripped his neck in pain as the others found him. "Jaune, are you okay?" said Pyrrha, Ruby and Yang almost in complete sync.**

 **"Yeah but I got stung by a Rapier Wasp."**

 **"Damn that Cardin!" shouted Nora.**

 **"Cardin?" he looked at them all with a quizzical look.**

 **Yang answered him, "That bastard threw a jar of sap at you and released the wasps. We saw him laughing afterwards. But we took care of him." She grinned menacingly.**

 **"What did you do?" he asked slightly worried.**

 **Ruby spoke next, "Yang, Nora, Pyrrha and I threw our glass jars at him."**

"That's not funny," grumbled the boy as others snickered.

Jaune, instead, looked worried. "Isn't this where…"

 **Jaune started laughing at that. Until they heard screaming and saw the rest of Cardin's team running towards them. Yang grabbed Russel and held him up in front of her. "You guys have some nerve showing your faces here."**

 **Russel started sweating, "It was all Cardin's idea! Besides, he stuck back there fighting an Ursa Major!"**

"Yes it is," nodded Jaune.

"There is something that's been bugging me for quite a while, though," said Weiss, disregarding the screen for a second. "Your team all fled before a mere Ursa Major, and you were defeated easily by it. While Jaune, with very little training, almost killed it. And he maybe would've killed it nonetheless, hadn't Pyrrha intervened."

"And so?" sneered Cardin.

"And so how exactly did you enter this school?" Weiss's eyes narrowed as Cardin froze. "You are not courageous. You are not smart. You are not skilled. You are not even nice people who want to help others. So why exactly are you in Beacon?"

"I…"

Goodwitch raised an eyebrow. She would be taking a _long_ look at CRDL's transcripts in the future. After all, if she had missed Jaune's, it wasn't so hard to imagine she could've missed others as well. And Team CRDL _were_ indeed a bit too lacking in _everything_ to have been accepted into Beacon without Ozpin's direct intervention. Judging by his frown, that hadn't been the case.

 **Jaune's eyes widened and he looked at where they ran from. His eyes hardened in determination. "Ren, Nora, go with the rest of CRDL and get Goodwitch. Pyrhha, come with me. We gotta give Cardin a hand." He ran in that direction with Pyrrha following him Ruby told Weiss to follow her and for Yang and Blake to go with Ren and Nora. When they found Cardin, he was being pinned against a tree by a huge Ursa Major with his mace by his feet. Jaune quickly applied pressure with his left pinky and drew Dokiri with his left hand and pointed his right hand forward as his eyes shifted brown. A rock pillar popped out between Cardin's feet and hit the Major in the chest pushing it back and Jaune decapitated it with Dokiri. As it fell he looked down at Cardin breathing ragged and covered in sap. He was about to give him a piece of his mind when he heard growling behind him. They all turned to see dozens of Ursai, both Minor and Major coming into the clearing.**

 **Things just got serious.**

"Well, fuck," swore Yang. "I'm guessing that didn't happen, right?"

"No, it didn't." Ren shook his head as if to clear it. "We'll see what happens in the next viewing. Meanwhile, Jaune, didn't you say you had something to show us?"

"Oh… right…" Jaune laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. "It's… Yang and I think we've discovered my Semblance."

"WHAT?!" everyone shouted. Ruby gripped his hoodie tightly as she began asking non-stop about it, and he actually had to cover her mouth with a hand to halt the flow of words. He gently moved her aside and looked at Yang for help.

"Okay, let's just repeat what we did earlier," she sighed, standing up. She made sure to stand right in front of Cardin, who didn't mind in the least the free show. But it was necessary for her plan to work. "Ready?"

Jaune stood a few feet away, facing her and focusing on his Aura. "Ready."

"I'm ready whenever you want, Knight." She smirked when she saw him nod. Oh yeah, Cardin would regret peeking at her ass. Her ass was Jaune's only to look at. Wait, where did that thought come out from?

Before she could dwell too much on it, Jaune reeled back a fist and began to glow white, an unseen breeze blowing his hair and giving him a kinda heroic look. With a battle cry, he threw the fist at the air in front of him, opening his fingers as it moved. A strong blast of air erupted from his palm and flew straight at Yang, who was grinning widely.

She skillfully sidestepped the attack and turned just in time to see Cardin being blasted into a Cardin-shaped crack in the wall. Oh yeah, that had been satisfying. Her eyes trailed across the room as she took in the others' shocked expressions. Even Ren looked positively stunned. And was that a smile on Weiss's lips? She would need to investigate.

Unfortunately, she forgot that Jaune wasn't going to stop at the first attack, and so she could turn barely in time to see him deliver a swift axe kick at her head, thinking she would block it, aided by the wind to give it more strength. She could only widen her eyes as the kick landed on her head, knocking her down into the floor. She groaned as she started to pick herself up. It hadn't been Jaune's fault, but that didn't mean it hadn't hurt, even with her Aura.

"Oh Oum I'm so sorry Yang, I thought you would've blocked like when we sparred!" Two lithe yet strong hands grabbed her, one clamping down on her arm while the other holding her by the waist, and she was pulled up only to find herself face-to-face with a very worried Jaune. "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault… I should've seen you weren't looking and…"

"Don't worry," she brushed it off easily. "My fault for being distracted." An idea wormed its way into her mind and she smirked at Jaune. "Kiss it better?"

He sputtered and released her, taking a step back. She gave a little chuckle and turned before her smile fell. Well, that hadn't worked.

"Yang?"

Quickly putting another smile on, she turned to face Jaune, not without taking another sadistic little glance at Cardin, who was still stuck in the wall. He nervously glanced at Ruby and Pyrrha, both still shocked, before he gently took hold of her chin and lightly pecked her forehead. "B-Better?"

Yang's smile could've brightened the room. "Much."

The knight nodded, still a bit nervous about that, and turned to the others, giving them an awkward smile. "So… I take it you like my Semblance?"

"That was your Semblance?" asked Ruby before she shot over to him and climbed on top of him. "That was so cool! How did you do it!? Is it like an invisible force?!"

"No, Ruby, my Semblance is Air Manipulation," he replied with a smile, petting her head like a puppy's. "That was a blast of compressed air."

"That's. Even. COOLER!" shouted the small redhead, holding onto him like a baby sloth. He didn't even need to hold her up with his arms, she was keeping herself up on her own. "Can you do anything else?!"

"Can you remove the air from people's lungs?" asked Blake.

Everyone fell silent at that. "What? I'm just curious!"

"N-No, for now I can only do that," said the boy, clearing his throat awkwardly. "A-Anyway! I-I should go t-training, you k-know?"

He gave one last nervous laugh before rushing out of the room. Ren and Nora exchanged a glance and followed him. They stopped as Yang called them out, and turned almost in unison. "Don't worry, we're going to spar with him," Ren explained with a little secret smile before turning and collectedly walking towards the training room.

"And give him a little love advice to survive this mess," he added in a whisper only Nora could hear.

 ** _Take cover! Ren and Nora are on the warpath!... wait a second, that's incorrect... REN AND NORA ARE ON THE LOVEPATH!_**

 ** _Ehm-ehm... Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to say that yes, I think CRDL had their own transcripts forged. I mean, they're weak, idiots, cowards and bullies... how the hell did they get into Beacon?! As for our poor Jeyin synapsis... she'll be back to work soon._**

 ** _And yes, Jaune's is starting to faaaaaaall... let's hope someone prepared the mattress, because he's falling HARD!_**

 ** _Finally, I promised you two Omakes, didn't I? Didn't I?! Yep, I did! So here you are with the first. I'd like to thank Apex of Failure (don't let yourselves be fooled by the name!) for the help and this is for you, Apex!_**

HAPPY MEMORIES

The Watchers were calmly relaxing on their couches when the door behind them opened... allowing into the room none other than... Jaune?

"Jaune?" asked Ruby, confused, her eyes darting between the Jaune Arc she was sitting on and the Jaune Arc who had just entered the room. "Is that you?"

"No, it isn't," said Other-Jaune, smiling at all of them. Everyone was either shocked, or frowning, while Blake had some very unladylike thoughts about threesome Jaune/Blake/Jaune... Blake was in the middle for a _reason_.

Then, much to everyone's renewed surprise, the man at the door seemed to warp until he was Jaune Arc no more, instead now looking very different from any of them. He had long black hair tightly tied in a ponytail and reptilian sickly green eyes. When he spoke, the Watchers noticed two snake-like fangs inside his mouth, where the upper canines should've been. "Your expressions were priceless," he commented with a grin. "You can call me Apex, your houseowner allowed me in here for a short while. I'm here to give you something... But first! A little riddle for you to solve. And only you five." He pointed at Team RWBY and Pyrrha. "Ready to answer?"

The girls nodded, a bit used to Phoenix so not too surprised by the new godlike entity. Apex grinned maliciously as he clapped his hands and disappeared, only to speak into Blake's cat ear as he reappear behind her, startling the girl. "I am red, blue, and any other hue of the rainbow. I am long and short, thick and thin, and I often rest coiled up. I can eat up a hundred sheep and still need more. Now, what am I?"

"A fat snake," snarked Yang.

" _The_ rainbow?" asked Blake, with Weiss agreeing with her. "I mean, he didn't say it couldn't be it, right?"

"A dessert!" offered Ruby, and Pyrrha found herself nodding along. "I mean, they can be of any colour and shape... although the sheep still confuse me..."

Apex shook his head. "Nope. Nope. Nope. The answer is..." A dramatic drum roll started playing. "... A woollen rug!"

Five girls face-faulted, but the godlike man wasn't deterred. Instead, he rubbed his hands together perking up a bit. "Oh... Cardin, Neptune, you might want to check your underwear, I'm smelling it from here." The two teens blinked before the smell hit them as well, and they rushed to the bathroom. Apex chuckled. "Perfect! Now... one last thing! Girls, prepare yourself for your future!"

As the five started to get up, a single memory began to play in their minds.

 _A large house in the middle of a beautiful garden could be seen. Playing in the garden there were several children with different hair, some blonde, some white, some red and some black. Some had more than one colour, too. A few of them had large white wings on their backs, carefully folded as not to hurt them, and the two black-haired ones had cat ears on their heads. The front door opened. Jaune and his wives walked out in the garden with smiles on their faces._

 _First was Blake Belladonna. She had matured into a mysterious beauty who could smile like there was no tomorrow. She absent-mindedly began to pet one of her children's cat ears as she looked at the others playing._

Thud. Blake was down.

 _Then came Yang Xiao Long, her bright hair now reaching three meters in length tied in a ponytail for the children to play with. Her figure hadn't gotten any less womanly even after the four children she had with Jaune, and her wrath still had everyone hide under the Arc household's beds._

Thud. Yang was down.

 _Ruby Rose was leaning against her husband, a happy smile on her face as her hand rested on her pregnant belly. She hadn't gotten much taller as the years went on, but she had surely filled out quite nicely in curves. Two of her three children had her silver eyes, and she wondered if the next one was going to or not._

Thud. Ruby was down.

 _The other pregnant wife was Pyrrha Nikos, a gorgeous beauty everyone in town looked at with longing and lust, but who had eyes only for Jaune. Unlike Yang, she hadn't allowed her hair to grow out any more, still keeping it in a ponytail. She smiled as she looked at her children. Among all the wives, she was the one who had had more children: six of them._

Thud. Pyrrha was down.

 _Last came Weiss Schnee, former heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. After graduating from Beacon she had used her political influence and her charisma to dismantle her father's company into smaller ones, so that the Dust trade wouldn't be controlled by a single company. She was the one with less children, since she still was a bit shy in bed, but she was still proud of her two bundles of joy._

Thud. Weiss was down.

Apex grinned as the five girls hit the floor. "Maybe this will convince them to hurry up with their knight," he commented before he walked out of the room, whistling Red Like Roses.

 ** _Whew, that was a "long" Omake. The next one won't be as nice, though! It's title is... Khor's Perverted Action. It says everything you need to know. Hold on, people, you're about to have a nice journey into my own perverted mind!_**

KHOR'S PERVERTED ACTION

Cinder Fall was torn. No, not literally. She was torn between incinerating the man before her, or merely putting an arrow through his heart.

The man, instead, looked to have all his choices clear as he slowly strode forwards and placed a lovingly gentle hand on her cheek. "Dear Cindy, do you know how long I waited for this to happen?" He smiled disarmingly at her, brown wild hair framing his face quite... wildly, yeah. "And not you, not anyone else is gonna take this away from me, now."

Cinder widened her eyes before smirking. So, seduction could work, eh? "Of course, my dear, right here?" she purred.

"Right. Here," he nodded. His hand moved to her chest and she smiled.

Then he pushed her off and into a large pan full of oil. A pan she could swear hadn't been there before. "Right here. You see that fire? I'll put this pan there, and don't try to evade, it's enhanced against escape."

Then the godlike entity summoned a can of popcorns and happily watched as Cinder Fall was slowly fried alive before serving her cooked body to her underlings.

 ** _...don't look at me like that! You illusioned yourself! "Perverted" does not always mean "sexually perverted". In my case my mind is just twistedly evil. Still perverted but not sexually. I never mentioned anything being sexual._**

 ** _So, now that you know what I would like to do with Cinder, I guess this chapter is over. Have a nice day/night!_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	16. Chapter 15

**_Whew, between little brother and shitty WiFi, I managed to upload this. Let's hope some phantom virus doesn't delete it, now. Otherwise, on with the chapter!_**

"What do you mean `you should start considering dating multiple girls`!?"

Ren sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as Jaune freaked out before him, his Semblance unconsciously blasting air in every direction, thankfully not strong enough to trip Ren or Nora. "Jaune, listen to me. To us. They like you, would you rather break their hearts?" he asked. "If they share you, they'd all be happy."

The blond knight stopped his freak-out immediately, and for a second Ren thought he'd finally seen reason. But then he turned to face him, and the ninja could only see rage in his blue eyes. "The decision is not mine to make. I am not worthy of _one_ of them, much less two or more," he growled at the green-clad boy. "I don't want to break their hearts, but this does not mean I'm willing to humiliate them by taking multiple girlfriends. It'd be like saying that only all together they are worthy of be my partner, and that couldn't possibly be farther from the truth!"

"It wouldn't be a first," defended Ren. "Other people have had multiple partners too…"

"I don't care about _other people!_ I care about Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang!" shouted Jaune, and Ren was almost forced to take a step back from the sudden gust of wind. Still, despite everything, Ren had way more training than Jaune, and he was trained in martial arts. As strong as Jaune's Air Semblance was, Ren was stronger. "They deserve someone to focus only on them, not someone who goes gallivanting with other people as well! Neptune does that enough, thank you!"

"Jaune, you are different, they _know_ you would be loyal to them," argued Nora. "Come on, I'm a girl, don't act like you know more than I do on girls."

"It wouldn't be any different!" exclaimed the boy, stomping his foot almost childishly. "It would still be acting like a womanizer! I'm _not_ going to just up and say `Hey Ruby, Pyrrha, Yang, I've notice you all seem to hold feelings for me. Doubts on how this has happened aside, I've decided that I can't choose between you and so I'm just gonna date you all at the same time. Isn't it great?`!"

"And what about your parents?" asked Ren. "Didn't your dad date your mothers too?"

"This is different!" Jaune pointed out, raising a finger. "First off, my dad never proposed to them, it was the other way around… kind of. My mothers all had feelings for him and decided to kidnap him from his family all together."

Ren paled. Nora… not so much. "Oh really?! That's sooooo romantic!" she cooed, clasping her hands together and shooting Ren a sidelong glance.

"Yeah… it took him a little while, but he did fall for them too. They released him immediately so he could back to his family, of course. They didn't keep him prisoner…" The boy mumbled something terribly similar to a `I hope not, at least` before he sighed. "But the point is… it's not my decision to make. I don't know how three girls as… as… as _them_ … could've fallen for me but I won't take any action toward one of them specifically."

"You'll give them all hope only to have to squash it?" inquired Ren, raising an eyebrow as he prepared himself for another windstorm. "That's rather cruel, you know?"

"I'm not going to do that!" snapped the blond. "It's just… they are Huntresses. If they are really infatuated with me… I _will_ give it a shot with them, but the point is that they shouldn't back off from confessing, then! Withholding feelings like that will only increase their negativity, and we all know what negativity brings. As Huntresses, they should be able to have control over their emotions!" He ran a hand through his hair. "There _must_ be a reason for them still not having said anything. I mean, not even asking out or just frequent close contact. Okay, Ruby is doing that _plenty_ at the moment, but they don't even try anything more!"

"Maybe they're afraid?" offered Nora, raising an eyebrow just like Ren.

"Afraid? Afraid of what? They know me, I would never allow a friendship to be ruined by unrequited feelings. Is not knowing really better than being rejected and having the chance to move on?" replied Jaune. "They have no reason to be afraid! I can get they've trained to fight for years and so their social skills have dropped below the floor, but come on! I stand by what I said: there must be a reason for their inaction. And if they think it's better not to do anything, then I'm not gonna disrupt their balance by barging it and confessing to anyone!"

"Okay, okay, easier question," sighed Ren, pinching the bridge of his nose Goodwitch-like. "Do _you_ love them? Or at least like them?"

That froze the knight dead in his tracks. He began to fidget and looked to the side. "I… I haven't really given it much thought, actually…" he murmured bashfully. "I-I mean… with all this love mess I haven't really figured out what _I_ feel. But that doesn't matter. If it makes them happy then I have no say it in."

"This isn't how love works, Jaune, it must be m-" Ren was stopped as Nora forcefully clamped a hand on his mouth. He tried to speak, even to bite her hand, but her grip was iron and he didn't want to lose any more teeth to her strength.

"Tell me, Jaune, how much do you care for them?" she asked instead, her voice cheerful as usual but her eyes serious and calculating. "Would you die for them?"

Jaune snorted and crossed his arms. "That's an easy question. Of course I would. Dying for someone or something is easy," he replied. "I would _live_ for them."

Nora and Ren exchanged a glance, not really familiar with the saying. The corridor they were currently in wasn't soundproof, but they were sure enough not even Blake could've overheard them. After a _little_ bit of training -Ren and Jaune still hadn't recovered from that spar-, the Hammer and the Lotus had dragged the Light into a side corridor and forcefully started the conversation. Unfortunately, it hadn't gone like they had expected. Jaune had turned out to be fiercely protective of the girls' happiness and he had completely refused to even take into consideration the idea of breaking the hearts of two of them just to choose one. The idea of dating them all had been a last-resort thing, but it had sparked even more fury in the boy.

But not Nora had a lead, and she wasn't going to relinquish it. "I've never heard that saying, could you explain?"

Jaune shrugged and sighed. "Dying is simple. It takes either a little courage or very little self-preservation. Dying might be the right thing to do at the time but it's overall just that. Just dying," he said, lifting his hands as if to sign something before dropping them again. "But _living for someone?_ That is a lot more difficult. Living for others means dedicating your own life to them. Not disregarding your own health or you would be useless. Everything you'd do, from keeping yourself healthy and clean to choosing a house close to theirs, would be with them in mind. If you live for a cause, you work toward it all your life, and you _always_ put it before anything else. Dying is just an action, just a moment no matter how long you'll live in the Afterlife. But living… living for someone takes far longer."

"You would use your entire life to keep them happy?" inquired Nora. _'That sounds like obsession…'_

"No, of course not. Doing so would instead make them sad. I would be happy to live for them, but that doesn't mean I would turn into a slave for them." The boy shrugged again. "I really don't know how to explain it better."

"Jaune." He turned to Nora. "Do you think they're attractive?"

"Of course I do," he snorted. "I mean, I'd have to be blind to think otherwise."

"Do you think them to be good friends?" continued the girl. "People you can get along well with? People you respect?"

"They are the ones I respect and care for most in the world, just like my family," was his simple reply. It was like he had never even _considered_ it being anything but that.

Nora's smirk was reaching epic levels. "Jaune, what do you think of their personalities?"

"Er…" Jaune scratched the back of his head, thinking about it. "Well… Ruby is innocent and naive but she always wants to help others. She's very kind and selfless, plus she's smart and brave too. Weiss is cold but she's strong, and I'm not speaking of physical strength. She's the kind of girl to always stand up to insurmountable odds just because she thinks it's right. Blake is… complicated. I mean, she's obviously a kind soul but… she refuses to accept that the White Fang is beyond salvation now. She is not the most trustful of people but she always fights for what she believe is right, and she's determined to make a difference." He needed another second before he finished. "Yang is a hothead and is extremely reckless, but she's really protective of her friends, plus her loyalty is undoubted. And she also has a big heart underneath all that `badassery`. And Pyrrha… Pyrrha is a bit socially inept but she's a kind and selfless person who would do anything for her friends. She doesn't trust strangers much even if she smiles at them, because her fame made her guarded. That's why she needed me to come out from her shell. So, overall… I think I've been lucky to have gotten them as friends."

Nora finally reached her grinning limit and clamped a hand down on Ren's arm. "Very well then, we should go back to the Watching Hall, shouldn't we? The others must've been waiting for us. _Right, Ren?_ "

"O-Of course, Nora," paled the boy, nodding a bit too quickly to be in anything but unspoken fear.

"Good," grinned the short hammer maiden, leading the way back to the Watching Hall. _'He's totally hooked, he simply hasn't realized it yet. The girls just need to ask and he'll crumble like a sandcastle. The girls are lucky to have a guy like him… and not some dense airhead like Renny. I love him but sometimes I really want to smack him with Maghnild…'_

The three burst through the Watching Hall's doors just as the screen began to lit up. Jaune suspected the screen, or the houseowner at least, _knew_ of their arrival and had reacted appropriately. He was rudely thrown on a large couch by Nora, and a second later he found himself in a very strange predicament. A second after he landed Ruby was basically hurled on his lap, and she grabbed onto him to avoid falling over. Then Pyrrha landed on his right, latching onto his right arm while Yang fell on his left side, grabbing his left arm. He glared at Nora but she only grinned back innocently. The three girls began to blush a little at the contact, but he just gestured them something like `Nora is Nora` -yes, they had a sign language only for Nora and her Noraisms- and they seemed to calm down.

Apparently, they still didn't know he had picked up on their _obvious_ hints. Somewhere in his head, the synapsis Jeyin snorted at his own hypocrisy.

 **Ursai, both Minor and Major, started coming into the clearing. The sheer numbers were just baffling. There had to be fifty so far in the few minutes they were there and they were practically surrounded. Jaune took a deep breath and applied pressure with his right index for all the sheathes besides Dokiri's shifted to his right shoulder and he drew Suikiri, His right eye shifted to the darker blue and he held both his swords tightly. "We just need to hold them off for the others and Goodwitch to show up. Until then let's play this smart, cover each other. Everyone ok with that?" Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha nodded. Cardin picked up his mace and nodded begrudgingly.**

"Okay, that's just exaggerating!" immediately protested Cardin. "There was just _one_ Ursa!"

"In that universe, you had four jars' worth of sap on yourself, Cardin," noted Jaune. "Plus Grimm are also attracted by negative emotions, and I'm pretty sure you aren't in the best of moods at the moment. If that Ursa Major showed up just by following the scent of one jar of sap, here you have negativity _and four_ jars of sap on you."

"Summing it up, you're food for Grimm," Yang summarized with a smirk. "But of course our Knight here will have to come to your rescue, won't he?"

"Jauney Boy, saving me?" Cardin scoffed obnoxiously. "As probable as the Faunus stopping being freaks."

"Faunus are freaks?" asked Nora, confused. "No, Cardin, you are mistaken. It's your _fat anus_ that's a horror of Mother Nature."

"You… you little-!" screamed Cardin, even as the others chuckled or outright laughed at his embarrassment. Nora's joke hadn't been the best, but since it was aimed at Cardin they would let it pass.

"I see an incredible lack of discipline here," noted Ironwood. "Ozpin, why do you allow such behaviours to continue? This is _not_ proper conduct for a Huntsman or Huntress in training!"

"I fail to see your point, my friend," smiled Ozpin.

The General snorted. "I've taken a look at their academic grades. Somehow, the houseowner allows the Scrolls to partially reach Remnant. I couldn't get a call through, but I managed to look at Beacon's database. Discipline and grades are usually very closely related matters." He cleared his throat as he brought up the file on his Scroll and began to read aloud. "Ruby Rose. Total Combat Score (TCS): 81%. Total Academic Score (TAS): 88%, barely above sufficiency until Ms Schnee forced her to study. Total Leadership Score (TLS): 91%. Yang Xiao Long: TCS: 92%. TAS: 62%. Nora Valkyrie: TCS: 90%. TAS: 53%, and she's helped by her partner. In addition to that, you have two criminals among your students. I think these scores and this fact should warrant a significant change in the administration of the school. They are obviously linked to the lacking organization of the Academy."

"Should we mention the scores of said two `criminals`, James?" Ozpin took out his own Scroll and read aloud. "Blake Belladonna. TCS: 84%. TAS: 99%. Jaune Arc: TCS: 9%. TAS: 95%. _Please pay attention…_ TLS: 113%."

"Wait a second…" began Jaune, but Ironwood's jaw drop beat him to it.

"How is it possible to get _more_ than full marks!?" he shouted. "I thought he had hacked the system and faked it poorly, but if you say…"

"The answer is simple," grinned the Headmaster. "In questions where there was no optimal answer, Mr Arc smartly decided to add his own `J` choice and choose right. He only spared the questions marked with `choose _only_ among the following`. He created his own strategies instead of using pre-existing ones. I had to evaluate his assignments personally because no answer sheet would help. So I gave him full marks… and some. I think his incredible aptness for leadership more than makes up for his combat score. A score I'm sure we'll soon see skyrocket. So James, if you would, don't comment on how I handle my school. In my opinion I am doing, as youngsters say, `a damn good job at it`."

As if to emphasize the point, a large armoured gauntlet with Phoenix's symbol on it appeared in a bout of flames and smacked the General in the face, leaving an angry red imprint on his cheek before disappearing. Needless to be said, the man was _not_ happy about it.

 **At that moment an Ursa Major charged at them. Jaune met it and dodged its paw while slashing its throat. He used Dokiri to bring up rock pillar to launch himself into the air and as he was rising, he fired water blasts into the Ursas with varying effects. As he came down, he slammed Dokiri into the ground to create a huge earth wave towards the Ursa. The ones in the front were crushed but the others just climbed over the rock and other Grimm to get to them. Bullets started flying into them curtesy of Ruby and Pyrrha, Weiss started to use her Glyphs as well. Cardin joined Jaune where he stood, they shared a look and started carving into the Grimm. Jaune was able to dodge most of the Grimm's attacks and any he didn't he could shrug off due to the earth enhanced aura.**

"I call cheat!" shouted Nora, jumping on her couch. "His Semblance is far too powerful! The eleme-thing backlash or whatever is not nearly enough to compensate for such power! I want his Semblance too!"

"Me too," grumbled Cardin, crossing his arms on his chest. "It's easy for him to be so strong… it's enough to use his Semblance and puff! Everything goes fine."

"I think you're looking at this from the wrong point of view," noted Winter. "The Swordsman's Semblance is indeed powerful even on its own, but he needed _years_ before reaching this level of mastery. At first he probably hurt himself more than he could hurt Grimm."

"And that's without even speaking about the people's reactions," added Qrow, taking a swig from his flask. "Fear, hatred, jealousy… none of them usually ends well for the Semblance user."

 **After impaling yet another Ursa, he looked around to see how the others were fairing. Cardin seemed to be having a little problem with the numbers but was fine for now. Ruby and Pyrrha were now alternating between melee and long range attacks. Weiss was using her Glyphs sparingly while also fighting on the front lines. Meanwhile, Ursai were still coming. 'How is this possible? The sap on Cardin couldn't possibly be enough to draw all these Ursai to us. Wait...' He looked closer at Cardin and saw just how angry he was. 'Negative emotions.' He grabbed the left side of his neck in pain from where the wasp stung him. "Cardin, you need to calm down! Your negativity is drawing more to us!"**

 **"Shut it, Arc! I'll fight how I want to!" he shouted in anger as he caved an Ursa's head in.**

 **Before he could argue, another Ursa was on him. He used Dokiri to hold it back and placed Suikiri right under its chin and fired a water blast. Its head was practically split in half after that. Two more were right behind it and he stabbed Dokiri into the ground and fired two rock spears into their chests, killing them. He heard a scream of pain and turned to see Pyrrha take a hit and her aura was getting low. Jaune snapped, he used Dokiri to form many earth spikes behind the Ursas and shot off towards Pyrhha with his aura, using Suikiri to control all the water he had summoned so far. When he was in front of her, he swung Suikiri and the water pushed most of the Ursai into the spikes. Without saying a word, he walked over to Cardin and spun him around.**

 **"Wha-!?" that was all he could say before Jaune hit him in the temple with the pommel of Suikiri. He fell to the ground, out cold. Everyone looked at him in shock.**

"Thanks," grumbled Cardin, and he sounded sincere.

Everyone looked at him, surprised by his response. They had all been about to cheer the Swordsman's awesome action but Cardin's comment had stopped them all in their tracks. "Ehm… you're… welcome?" replied Jaune, not really knowing what to do.

Cardin glanced at him and scoffed. "This by no means makes us buddies or whatever, but you were right to knock me out. I was attracting more Grimm. My other self was too angry to realize that and it could've been the end for all of us hadn't you stopped that negativity," he explained, annoyed. "And besides, those are Grimm. I may not like you but those are literally soulless monsters hellbent on killing all humanity, so I can put aside my petty grudges when it comes to fighting them."

There was a long silence after his little speech, and then Weiss spoke. "Maybe I misjudged you, Winchester," she admitted. "I still dislike you and you are still a jerk, but you're not as stupid as I thought. Not many think like that in a fight, instead focusing on the action itself, without taking in the situation."

"Yeah yeah, I'm a jerk with one redeeming quality, I know your opinion," huffed the boy. "No need for speeches, Ice Bitch."

 **"Jaune?! Why'd you do that!?" Ruby questioned him.**

 **"His negativity was drawing more Grimm. Plus, I really wanted to do that." He turned back to the Grimm. "There's still a lot. You guys should step back a bit. This is gonna get messy." He started walking forward as he closed his eyes while everyone was questioning him, but he ignored them for now. He focused on the energies of the crushing earth and flooding water inside his aura. He started to fuse the energies and when they were about to completely fuse, he combined his two swords together. A burst of green light erupted from him and the grass and trees around them that were usually red started to glow the same color. As the light died away, the three girls saw Jaune standing there with Dokiri and Suikiri now a double edged longsword with the circuits and edges glowing green. He opened his eyes and they were green as well. "Flourish, Mokukiri." He raised his left hand and the trees behind the Ursa started glowing green as they twisted and bent until they formed what looked like a hedge wall but out of wood.**

"Apparently, that is another Advance Element," noted Ozpin. "I wonder how many can he wield. It's obvious he still can't wield a three-element power, but who knows if he discovered all the Advance Elements already…"

"Is it really important at the moment?" asked Pyrrha. "He basically asked us not to interfere. He is strong but apparently the venom from the Rapier Wasp is starting to take its toll on him, what if he gets hurt?"

"Meh, I don't think that'll be the case, that is a version of Arc who can actually do something," snarked Neptune before being backhanded by no other than Cardin himself. "What the fuck, man? I thought we were friends!"

"We are," agreed Cardin. "But I love action scenes and you are interrupting an awesome action scene, so shut it."

 **"Jaune, what are you doing?" His partner asked him.**

 **He turned to look at them, "Stopping more from coming. Please, you three and Cardin step back a bit. You may not be effected by the energy my Semblance released but it can still be dangerous." They hesitantly started to fall back a bit with the unconscious Cardin. The Ursai started to run forward at that, Jaune raised his hand again and flicked it towards the charging Grimm and the trees to the sides of the Ursai started to fired off foot long wooden spears into them. Twenty Ursai were left after the volley, seven of them were Major. Jaune charged at them, he slashed through the neck of the Ursa in front of him and jumped off of it to get above the Major behind it and impaled it through the head. As it fell, he went to pull Mokukiri free but the left side of his neck and left shoulder had pain shoot through it from the venom of wasp sting spreading.**

 **He barely got Mokukiri free before he was knocked aside by another Major. He hit a tree pretty hard and his aura took a big hit. Jaune slowly rose and placed his left hand on the tree. It started twisting and bending into a large wooden gauntlet around his left forearm and hand. As another Ursa ran up to him, he grew a foot-long wooden spike from the wrist of the gauntlet and stabbed it in the neck. He kicked it off and ran into the fray, killing as many Grimm as possible with either Mokukiri or his wooden gauntlet. He killed another four Minors and two Majors before the pain shot through him again, this time further down his left arm to his elbow. He just had enough time to bring up his gauntlet to stop another Major from biting into him. Next second he heard a gunshot and its head exploded along with a second to his left. He turned and saw Ruby and Pyrrha with their weapons in rifle form. He raised his hand in thanks before the pain shot through him again. He was now on one knee and was breathing raggedly.**

"See, he's fine, we are there," smiled Ruby. "We would never allow Jaune to get hurt, now would we?"

"Of course we wouldn't," agreed Pyrrha.

"Although I think he should've allowed at least me to support him with my Glyphs," noted Weiss. "So not to intervene directly. For example, I could've prevented him from getting hit."

 **"Have to end this now." He slammed his gauntlet into the ground and started spreading roots from it to connect to the roots to as many of the trees around him as possible. He started channeling as much of his aura as possible, his body was glowing green as well as about a dozen trees around him. Even their usual red leaves were green. With a scream, he started to twist the trees into wooden tendrils and used them to either impale or grab the Grimm. He started twisting them together until they formed a twisted wooden spire with the last of the Ursai evaporating from it. His aura stopped and his eyes shifted to blue before he practically dropped his sword from the pain running from the left side of his neck all the way down to his wrist. "The Elemental Feedback can really suck with wood." He said tiredly.**

"Okay, that was _awesome_ ," sighed Cardin, pushing aside a can of popcorns no one had noticed before. "Neptune, you can say what you wanted to say earlier."

The blue-haired boy just grumbled. "I was just expressing my surprise at seeing a version of Arc here who can actually do something instead of flailing around with a sword that's not his and having to be protected by girls," he huffed, although the statement had a bitter edge directed at Cardin too. "Honestly, I think that anyone here would prefer the Swordsman over this Arc by miles."

He was sneered at and thrown boots at by most of said girls, but his words got Jaune thinking, and not in a good way. _'He… he may actually be right… why should they like me when they could like him?'_ the boy thought. _'I-I mean… Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang could even just be infatuated with the Swordsman… not with me… but since he's another version of me they are projecting their feelings on me…'_ His face fell and for a second he was about to ask Ruby to get off his lap, an action he would've probably regretted. _'Of course, the signs began only after we were brought here so… it isn't_ _**me**_ _, it's_ _ **him**_ _. I… I mean, he's so much better than me in everything… who would ever like_ _ **me**_ _, while they could like someone like him? Someone who can help… someone who can fight… someone they can actually rely on instead of just having to protected… w-what am I even doing here? I-I mean… it's not just romantic feelings, he would be a much better friends for the others too… he went along fine with both Blake and Weiss from the start… a-and he is a childhood friends for Ren and Nora… w-who would ever choose me when they could choose him? A-After all… we've been brought here to watch him… not me. He's important, not me… so every time they speak to me, are they speaking to me, Jaune Arc the bumbling idiot of Beacon Academy, or do they think they're talking to him, Jaune Arc the Swordsman of the Elements? I-I… I honestly want to believe they are talking with me but… but what if I'm wrong?'_

"Jaune, are you okay?" asked Ruby, looking up at him. "You kinda went rigid and…"

"I-I'm fine, Ruby…" He scanned the room for a good excuse and found it onscreen. "J-Just a little worried for the Swordsman."

 **The three girls ran up to him and Pyrrha spoke, "Jaune, are you hurt at all?"**

 **He shook his head tiredly, "Not above the usual. My arm is killing me from the wasp sting and Elemental Feedback but I'm okay. Just stuck." They all looked down at his left hand. Without his Semblance, the wooden gauntlet wouldn't respond to his command and now his arm was stuck. "Ruby? Could you use Crescent Rose?"**

 **Her eyes went wide before she looked at him and nodded slightly. She hooked the blade right above the ground and just below his fingers. She was shaking slightly, "I don't know if I can do this. If I screw up…."**

 **"Ruby." She looked at Jaune in the eyes and she saw he wasn't afraid, "You can do this, trust yourself." She grew confident with his words and nodded. She looked back down and when she was sure she had the angle right, she pulled the trigger. Crescent Rose tore through the wood and Jaune was able to stand properly now. Although with a hunk of wood still around his forearm and hand. "See? Told you." He smiled at her.**

 **Ruby grinned at him. But Pyrrha had another thing on her mind. "Jaune, what about the wood?"**

 **He looked down at it than at her. "This might be something I need your help with, Pyr." He held his arm out to her. She nodded and put the tip of Milo at the end of it near his elbow. She looked up at him to see that he was ready and he nodded. With that she slowly brought Milo down the length of the wood and when she reached the end she started to go up on the other side. When she was done the wood was split in half and fell. He opened and closed his hand a few time but could feel the pain still shooting through him. "Well thank you, Pyrrha, but I think I need to go to the infirmary."**

"He will probably be fine," Weiss sighed in relief. "Rapier Wasp's venom _can_ kill, but he's probably out of danger now."

"Well, given how we've been dragged here to watch him, I somehow doubt we'll see the Swordsman's demise anytime soon," noted Ozpin. "Although his time in the infirmary could be unpleasant, depending on the venom's effects."

 **"That's probably for the best." Weiss answered him.**

 **He picked up Mokukiri and split it with only his right hand. He stuck Suikiri into the ground and held out Dokiri to Pyrrha. "Can you put this back?" She took it and put it into the sheathe over his left shoulder. Once that was done, the sheathe slid into alignment with the others. He pulled Suikiri from the ground but kept it on hand. The four started walking over to where they left Cardin against a tree. He began to stir and looked around while holding his head.**

 **"Ow, what happened?" he stopped when he saw the tip of a blade in front of his face. He looked up and saw it was Jaune holding it. "Arc? What-?"**

 **"Shut up." He growled. "Because of you, my friends were put in danger. Do something like this again or put my friends in danger and I won't still my blade. Understand?" He gulped and nodded slowly. Jaune took his blade away and sheathed it. The four left him there and walked to the rendezvous point.**

 **They were quiet until Weiss brought up what they all were thinking. "Did you really mean that, Jaune?"**

 **Jaune shook his head, "No. But he needs to learn. Stupid stunts like that can go horrible out in the field, one mistake can get someone killed. I'll kick his ass if he does something like that but I won't kill him. It would take someone I care about dying for me to do something like that." Next thing they know; Nora has Jaune in a bear hug wondering if he is okay. The rest of the group and Goodwitch are not far away.**

"Not so tough in reality, huh?" Cardin sneered at the false threat. "Should've guessed it was an empty threat."

"Why don't you just shut that mouth of yours, Cardin?" huffed Yang, clearly annoyed. "Because in case you haven't noticed, all that barking is doing nothing good. Don't speak unless you intend to improve the atmosphere."

"As Dad would say, don't speak just to fan your mouth," added Blake. "Jumbling out words is never going to do good. And if it's not going to do good, then why bother to speak at all?"

 **"What happened?" Goodwitch wanted answers, now.**

 **Jaune flicked his thumb to the wood spire in the distance. "Ursai showed up and we took care of them. Although, I need to go to the infirmary, Professor."**

 **She looked at the spire then back at Jaune and looked him over. She nodded. "Very well. Miss Nikos, please escort your partner while the rest of us finish up here." She nodded and the two of them started making the trek back to Beacon. She noticed every so often that he would grip his left arm in pain.**

 **"How bad is it, Jaune?" she asked him.**

 **He sighed when the pain subsided, "Not great but not deadly. Rapier Wasp venom can't kill unless in very high doses. It's supposed to cause pain. The venom I was injected with has just spread throughout my arm now, that's all."**

 **Pyrrha looked him up and down questioning, "Jaune, it hasn't been very long since you were stung. How could it spread that quickly?"**

 **"Well, the Elemental Feedback from the Advance Element Wood, causes my body to heal quicker even by my standards. But due to that any outside substances I'm exposed to get absorbed into my body at the same accelerated rate. So the more I was fighting, the more the venom spread."**

"So even Advance Elements have feedbacks…" commented Ozpin.

"We already knew," Yang pointed out, a bit confused by the Headmaster's words. "I mean, back during Initiation, he used Ice and he was subjected to extreme cold, so we already knew of that."

"That's different, Ms Xiao Long. As the Swordsman said, that's Elemental Backlash." The man sipped his coffee with a little smile. "In this case, it's Elemental Feedback, like Fire's increased strength or Lightning's speed. We still didn't know that Advance Elements could have Elemental Feedback."

"Is it really so important to know?" asked Sun.

"It's always best to gather as much knowledge as you can, young man," replied the Headmaster. "It might save your life one day in the field, but at the moment I'm just sating my own curiosity about the Swordsman's Semblance."

 **She looked at him with a mix of worry and annoyance, "If you knew that why'd you use it?"**

 **"It was the only way for all of us to get out of there. Besides, I knew the venom wouldn't kill me and opted to just deal with the pain." He was silent for a bit before he continued, "Plus, those monsters hurt you."**

 **Pyrrha went wide eyed and blushed, "I can handle myself, Jaune." She said slightly on the bashful side.**

Their own Pyrrha blushed at the Swordsman's words too, and again Jaune couldn't help the thoughts that swarmed his mind. He pushed them down, tried to squash them but they simply wouldn't go away. Like a horror in the night waiting for him to switch off the lights, the thoughts kept nagging at him with their insistent existence in the back of his head, and he knew that sooner or later, he would need to face them.

He just wished he could force them down better.

 **He nodded, "And so can I. Doesn't mean we might need a hand every so often." The two shared a smile and kept making their way back to Beacon. Once they got there they made their way to the infirmary. The nurse started to look Jaune over as the two took turns telling her what happened. She gave him a shot to take care of the venom. She was almost done with her examination when she held up his left arm.**

 **"How did you manage to get this?" She asked very confused.**

 **Jaune and Pyrrha looked to see an inch thick and four-inch-long wooden splinter stuck in the underside of his forearm. Pyrrha looked at it in awe because it wasn't just stuck into his arm, it looked like his arm healed around it. "My Semblance. When the Ursa bit the gauntlet, it splintered off into my arm." Was all Jaune said and Pyrrha realized what he meant by accelerated healing.**

 **"Well, we need to figure out how to get it out of you safely." Said the nurse.**

 **Jaune shrugged, "It's not in there all that deep. We just need to pull it out and bandage it until my aura heals it."**

 **"Why don't you let the professionals deal with this?" she said in a very arrogant tone. Jaune just looked at her with an eyebrow raised before he grabbed the splinter and pulled it out. He groaned a bit and his arm started bleeding immediately. The nurse and Pyrrha just looked at him in shock. "What the hell!?" she shouted.**

"That was incredibly reckless of him," snorted Weiss. "He should've allowed the nurse to do her job, even though she was acting arrogantly."

"Oh, come on Weiss Cream, he was right in doing it his way," replied Yang, riling the other girl up with the nickname. "He probably has experience with that kind of stuff and knows what to do. The nurse was trying to do her job, sure, but she was probably going to take much longer than that."

 **"This has happened before and I know what to do. So, can I get some gauze or I'm I gonna bleed all over the place?" He gave her a smirk and she just gave him a look before going to get some. He looked over to Pyrrha with his brow raised and she started to giggle.**

 **After he got his arm wrapped, they realized that they still had some time before their friends would return. They decided to go to the common room so Jaune could make Ruby the cookies he promised her. Jaune was almost done and was about to start breaking up two of the chocolate bars when he noticed Pyrrha was staring at the stack of six with her finger on her lips. He figured out what she was thinking and smiled.**

 **"Feel free to have one or two, Pyr. I only need two anyways." She looked up at him and saw he was serious. She then grabbed one and quickly unwrapped it before starting to eat it with a look of complete happiness. Jaune laughed at her slightly, "Is it that good?" he teased.**

 **She nodded with a small blush, "I love chocolate but my trainers don't let me eat it." She added sadly.**

"I feel your pain," Yang, Sun, Neptune, Winter and Weiss all said at once. They glanced at each other in surprise. "I mean, during training my Dad and Qrow would never allow me to eat stuff like that," confided Yang.

"And for abs like mine, I didn't just kept a workout schedule," remembered Sun, a slightly remorseful look on his face. "I also had to give up on many, many, _many_ foods I loved but that were too unhealthy for me…"

"Same here," nodded Neptune.

"As for me, the Schnee family has mannerisms and rules that do not allow us to eat chocolate like mere peasants, so we never had much, only what our butler Klein could manage to sneak us without being noticed," sighed Winter. "And after I joined the military, foods like chocolate has become even scarcer."

"Same here for me," nodded Weiss. "Although I still have trouble eating it even at Beacon because of Father's strict rules. Even now that I'm out of his house I sometimes can't bring myself to break his rules."

 **"Well they're not here and I can keep a secret, so feel free to indulge."**

 **She smiled brightly and continued eating the chocolate. Not long after that, Jaune had the two dozen cookies baking and he sat down next to Pyrrha who just finished her chocolate. She turned to him with a smile and he noticed she had a small amount smudged on the corner of her mouth. He brought his thumb up to it and wiped it away before licking it off his thumb. She blushed fully at that. But the moment was ruined when Ruby burst into the room in a flurry of rose petals and she said one word. "Cookies!"**

 **Jaune just laughed at her antics and Pyrrha was wishing she had a little bit more time with her partner alone. But she soon smiled, 'I wonder if he got the best partner or did I?' she thought before the rest entered the room.**

"And that's a wrap," stated Blake as the screen cut to black. "With another cute scene of Ruby, this time devouring her cookies."

"That was interesting to see," commented Ironwood. "Finally a battle where the Swordsman used more of his Semblance. I was really curious about its other functionalities and I must say, I'm satisfied with this viewing."

"I must say that I'm interested as how the Torchwick-dock-Fang thing will play out in this," mumbled Yang. "Will the Swordsman somehow be there as well? He would really be of help…"

"Yeah…" commented Jaune, moving Ruby out of his lap and standing up. "I-I guess he would. I… I'm gonna take a break, okay? Training and watching this screen non-stop is really tiring so… S-See you later?" He gave them a shaky smile and made his way to the door.

"Jaune?"

He froze and slowly looked at Ruby from over his shoulder. "Y-Yeah?"

"Are you _really_ okay? I mean, you've been acting a little tense…" She poked her indexes together in her adorable way of being shy. "First you tense, now you're like this… i-is something on your mind? C-Can we help you in any way?"

"W-What? N-No, there's nothing on my mind… well, except my usual thoughts, that is." He gave a nervous laugh as he avoided eye contact with anyone. "I… I just want to explore this castle a little and relax while I'm away, right? I-I mean, I also wanted to talk with Phoenix but I can't summon him so… I-I'll just way for when he comes here personally."

"Why do you need to talk with Phoenix?" asked Ruby. "Is something the matter?"

"N-No, I just… wanted to know something. That's it." It wasn't the complete truth but it wasn't a lie, either. He was just not saying everything. "I'll be right… right back."

"Jaune, wait-" Heedless to her words, the knight hurried out of the door, and the rose could only turn to the others. "Do you… do you think something is wrong?"

"I _know_ something is wrong," grumbled Blake, glaring daggers at the door. "Jaune was hiding something. He's not very good at it. I'm okay with him keeping secrets but this seems to be heavily weighting down on his mind."

"I think I know what's wrong." Everyone turned to Ren, who was glaring death at Neptune. The blue-haired boy was getting more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by. The ninja's expression could only be labelled as _murderous_. "But it'll take some time explaining, and I am _not_ going to give those two assholes the satisfaction of hearing what I have to say. Let's go somewhere else."

The green-clad boy rigidly stood up and walked out of the door, taking left where Jaune had taken right. Without even needing to exchange words or glances, the other six students followed him, leaving the rest of the Watchers to pass the time on their own.

 ** _Did you seriously think that issue wasn't going to come up sooner or later? Poor fools, this is Khor you're talking about, of course I added drama. But, if you think about it, it is necessary for the romance to get Jaune to shed his doubts. Remember that he began to pick up on their hints AFTER they were brought here so he might think they are infatuated with the Swordsman and projecting their feelings on him. It might be considered insulting for the girls, but I have low-self-esteem experience and I can honestly say he doesn't mean it that way._**

 ** _Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, and shitty WiFi be damned._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	17. Chapter 16

**_Whew, this thing is basically 11k words! I hope I didn't leave you hanging... what am I saying, of course I did. Well, don't worry, Khor is back with your answers!_**

 ** _...and an Omake._**

 ** _Let me just say this: this is the chapter you've been waiting for._**

Pointedly ignoring the angry clashes of metal coming from the Arena, Ren brought the six girls in what appeared to be an empty guard room.

"Listen, Jaune is obviously _not_ fine, and I think you all know why. What that moron said cut him deeply and now he's off to muse about it, so that's something even worse," began the green-clad ninja, pacing back and forth before them. "But now that he's off, interrupting him would be the worst thing we could ever do, because we must give him space if he asks for space. So I wanted to speak with you first, to tell you something…"

He turned to them with a scowl. "You're all absolute _morons_."

That garnered quite a few reactions from the girls, except for Nora who just looked down in shame. Ren put up a hand to stop them. "I have been a moron no less, and so have been the others. We were so busy _drooling_ _after the Swordsman's skill_ that we stopped paying attention to what was happening in _our_ world," he continued angrily. "We've been utter morons and we can't change it, we can only hope to atone for our mistakes. And don't speak!" he added as Pyrrha opened her mouth.

"No, you are _not_ allowed to speak. I'm just gonna say this outright and then you can ponder on it on your own, without messing this conversation up!" They had never seen Ren so angry before. He looked ready to smash the wall to pieces. "We have all ignored what was happening until something broke, and _then_ we wondered how had it happened!"

He rounded on them like a Grimm, and they almost took a step back. "Of _course_ there's something wrong with Jaune! There has been since the start! Something called `feeling like I'm not wanted here`!" The girls were about to protest, but he stomped his foot, cracking the floor, and they fell silent again. "We've all been awing at the Swordsman's powers, so much Jaune is probably starting to feel like what Neptune said is true! He probably thinks you… _we_ … would prefer if we could have the Swordsman with us instead of him!"

"That's not true!" exclaimed Ruby. "I l-"

"Yes, I know, you love him! Just like Pyrrha! And Yang is about to be added to the bunch since I'm pretty sure she's starting to fall for his dorky, kind, nice personality!" Ren snapped, causing the three of them to blush profusely. The others barely reacted to the words, having known of their crushes already. "But Jaune does not know _why_ you like him! And we're watching an alternative version of him. I've seen the look on his face after Neptune said that vicious idiocy of his, he looked about to cry. He probably thinks you would all prefer the Swordsman over him."

"But-"

"Think Ruby. From his point of view, the Swordsman is better than him in _everything_ while still retaining a kind and honest personality. Why would you _not_ like him? And since Jaune is the Swordsman's alternative version…" He trailed off, allowing them to reach his own conclusion.

"He thinks we like the Swordsman and we think of him as the Swordsman since they are alternative versions of each other…" murmured Pyrrha.

"He probably thinks you're projecting your feelings on him since you can't have his other self," completed Weiss, a grim expression on her face. "That's… unwelcome."

"Unwelcome?! UNWELCOME?!" Ren pulled at his hair in anger and frustration. "That's a disaster! So what we are going to do _as soon as_ we go back is to make it _clear_ that Jaune is our friend, no matter what. Although I have something to discuss with Pyrrha, Ruby and Yang. You three can go." He waved Blake, Weiss and Nora off, with the small hammerer dragging the other two away. "Now… your feelings for Jaune."

That alone was enough to make them blush. "I know that you are all currently crushing on him, or on a fast track to soon crush on him. But there is a small problem." He crossed his arms on his chest. "Jaune has never ever considered dating you because he thought you all out of his league. I'm pretty sure that, despite asking her out constantly, he would've freaked out had Weiss actually accepted his advances. He is not the most self-confident of people, as you might've noticed."

"I've spoken with him a bit, and I think he could easily fall for you if only he allowed himself to. He cares about you, about all of us, more than anything else in the world except his own family, so you've got closeness down. Now you must wait for him to fall for you, but meanwhile you need to overcome another problem." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "He has a far too kind heart. He would never dare love one of you if it means breaking the other two's hearts. Even if it means breaking his own heart, wrenching it out of his chest and running it over with a roadroller."

Pyrrha and Yang slumped at that, but Ruby was even close to tears. "So that means…"

"That you'll have to share," stated Ren, not a hint of joke in his voice. "It's the only way. He won't ever make the first move nor will he ever offer for you to share him, so you need to do it on your own. Either you all share him, or no one of you gets him."

"B-But…" stammered Yang, all three of them sporting blushes so red they probably could count as purple. "S-Sharing… S-Sharing is c-caring?"

"What?" asked Ren, perplexed.

"E-Earlier, I got a message that s-said `S-Sharing is caring`, by Phoenix…" Her eyes widened. "Do you think… h-he _knew_ this w-would've happened?!"

"Probably," Ren said flatly. "So… think about it. We have to get back now, or the others will get suspicious. Just keep in mind that it's either all of you, or none of you. He wouldn't be able to break your hearts."

The four of them slowly made their way back to the Watching Hall, sitting down on their respective couches. For the first time in a while, Ruby sat on her couch instead that on Jaune's, and everyone could see the pout on her face at having to make such a choice.

Fifteen minutes later Jaune too returned to the room, freshly showered but with a no less tense expression on his face. He took a seat on his usual couch and seemed to be almost expecting Ruby to sit on his lap. His expression was about to fall before a now familiar weight settled down on him, and silver eyes nervously looked up at him. "Is this okay?"

"I… I guess?" he nodded hesitantly.

"Good," smiled Ruby before she noticed something. "Hey, look, Phoenix's coming!"

True to her words, a large bout of flames had just appeared in the middle of the room, red with orange and yellow mixing in. The flames lasted a fair while longer than usual as the students and adults alike stared at them. When the flames dissipated, there was no one. The Watchers frowned, having at least expected something instead of just nothing. Maybe it had been something very small?

"What are you staring at?"

They all jumped and looked behind them, where Phoenix was standing with a shit-eating grin on his face, probably having purposefully lit up the flames in the wrong place to surprise them. He had a large silver briefcase in hand, and at his feet there was a German Shepherd pup, his fur almost completely black. His legs were light brown, and so were his stomach and part of his chest as they could see once he sat up to look at them. "Oh, where are my manners? I probably left them with my last cup of coffee," he chuckled before patting the puppy's head. "This ball of fur here is Helios. He's my little pet and I decided to bring him with me while coming here. Now, that I think of it… Helios, if you would, I think there's someone here who needs to _see the light_."

The dog, Helios, barked happily before trotting up to Neptune. The blue-haired boy blinked before smiling and reaching out with a hand to pet the pup's head. Phoenix, though, had other plans.

With another happy bark, Helios opened his mouth and a jet of flames burst forwards, much like a dragon's breath, lighting the boy on fire by igniting the oil that still was in his clothes and hair. Neptune screamed and began to flail around while the others just stared at him and the still tail-wagging dog in shock. Soon enough, a _pop_ resounded in the room as a large bucket of water appeared over the human torch previously known as Neptune, emptying its content on the boy's head, effectively extinguishing the flames. The inhabitant of said water, a large slimy fish, bounced off Neptune's head and landed right on Cardin's face with a wet _splat_ , and then the bucket itself followed with a louder _bang_. An ashen-faced Neptune with hair black with soot and singed clothes remained, but at least he hadn't oil on himself any more.

"A dragon dog?" asked Yang, puzzled, flinching when Helios barked happily. Phoenix walked up to him and scratched his ears.

"No, just a very special dog. Besides, who wouldn't want an adorable pup of a fire-breathing dog?" he said with a wink. "I'll be leaving him with you. He's a very good boy, but he really hates jerks." The last part was said with a glare to Neptune and Cardin, who seemed to wilt under his glower, and Ironwood. "As for you, General, don't think I haven't heard you. Just so you know, if you want to `teach` Jaune `respect`, you'll have to go through me first." A malicious smirk twisted his lips up as as heatwaves began to radiate from Phoenix, an aura as hot as a star enveloping his frame. "Wanna see what the `Great` General can do against the likes of a Writer?"

The General did not cower, but he did hold his tongue. Phoenix's aura died down and the Writer nodded before turning to the students. "As for you, I do believe you have something to tell Jaune before I do," he stated bluntly. "And no, I'm not talking of heart matters, but of something you've just discussed with your resident green ninja."

"Y-You mean…?" Phoenix nodded, and Ruby bit her lip. "N-Now?"

Another silent nod was her answer. She bit her lip harder as she turned to a confused Jaune. "J-Jaune…" she began hesitantly. He blinked as she continued to fidget nervously. "There's s-something we n-need to tell you…"

 _'Are… are they confessing?!'_ the Arc heir freaked out, eyes wide. _'No… no… nononono! I'm not ready! I don't even have a nice dres-… suit! I can't be confessed to in jeans and hoodie!'_

"We want to apologize for our absolute lack of any semblance of tact and awareness of our surroundings, something we've thoroughly shown during these last few viewings but that has been going on since the start of this… watching business," formally stated Weiss, proud and unwavering. Then she looked away and deflated. "I-I mean… we've ignored you and made you feel unwanted, and we can never apologize for that. We care for you as you are and we wouldn't exchange you for anyone else," she finished with a light blush on her cheeks, a blush that -in Jaune's honest opinion- just made her look adorable, like an embarrassed little girl. Much like Ruby.

"The Swordsman might have that Semblance but you're still our Fearless Leader!" exclaimed Nora, although her cheer was subdued by her guilt. "You thought badly of you because you thought we preferred the Swordsman but that's not true! I'll smash his legs to prove it!"

"What Nora means is…" Blake looked away just like Weiss. "We'd like to apologize for our careless behaviour. We don't know what we'd do without you."

"Awwww…" Sun finally couldn't contain himself any more and was reduced to a cooing flustered mess at the sight before him. Too much fluff had broken him, and he appeared to have forgotten that his teammate had just been covered in soot and burned. Helios jumped on Sun's lap and started whining in agreement. The two cooing heaps promptly embraced each other to shield themselves from the overpowering effects of the adorableness.

Meanwhile, Jaune nodded slowly and felt the tightness in his chest start to loosen. "I… It's alright," he said with a tiny smile. "It's all right now."

"Now, Jaune, I've heard there was something you wanted to talk with me about," stated Phoenix, setting down his briefcase and gesturing to the door. "Shall we get some privacy for it? As for you, the case won't open to anyone but me, so don't even attempt to open it."

The two walked for a bit until they reached an isolated enough hallway. Phoenix turned to Jaune with a shit-eating grin. "So, Jaune, what do you wanna talk about? Is it about the budding feelings from the women around you?"

Jaune blushed and coughed before his shoulders slumped and he sighed. "Phoenix… may I ask you something? I-I mean… I know you don't usually intervene in people's affairs but I'd like you to answer my question…" He took a breath. "T-The girls… everyone, for all that matters… their friendship or feelings, are they really for me or… I mean, the Swordsman is so much better than me in everything… why would they choose me when they have him? So, I guess my question is… am I just receiving the projection of their feelings or… or are they real? They began showing signs of having a crush on me only after we began watching this, so… so I can't help but feel like they are just infatuated with _him_ , and just think I'm the same because I'm his alternative version. I… I feel so unwanted… maybe Neptune's right? If they could exchange me for him… would they do it?"

Phoenix just stared at him for a few seconds before he snorted and chuckled. Jaune frowned at that but the Writer wasn't done. As soon as he recovered from his laughing fit, he smiled at him and patted his head much like Jaune usually did with Ruby. "You are a fool. They had feelings for you before they came here. Pyrrha fell for you shortly after she met you. Same for Ruby. Yang had those same feelings but she was too stubborn with that dumb grudge to realize it. Even Blake and Weiss have the beginnings of possible love for you, although theirs are still just _possible_. Jaune, it's not the Elemental Swordsman they like. It's you. The guy that has been through so much crap, yet still finds the power to smile and care about them above all else, even yourself. You're their Archangel."

Jaune stared at Phoenix for a second, dumbfounded, before an all-mighty blush reached his cheeks and he looked away, rubbing his neck. "Well, I… I guess that put like that it's really different, huh?" He chuckled nervously, trying to ease his embarrassment. "But if they had… why didn't they start hinting at it earlier? Were they just hiding it?"

"That is both their fault and yours." Phoenix sighed and shook his head, part in disbelief and part in amusement. "Jaune, you are one of my favourite people across the Multiverse, but you can be as dense as your moon is fractured. Although they were also afraid to tell you about their feelings and straight-out confess."

Jaune blinked a few times before realization sank in. In his head, the synapsis Jeyin sighed in relief and prayed the omnipotent god Phoenix, thanking him for the help. "I… hadn't thought of that…" he admitted bitterly. "Have I… really been that dense?"

Phoenix shrugged, not really caring about it since Jaune wasn't that dense any more, but acknowledging he had. "A bit. But they aren't the best at expressing their feelings either. Pyrrha is afraid to tell you because you were the first person to accept her as her, Pyrrha, not Pyrrha Nikos the Invincible Girl. She doesn't want to lose you in case you don't feel the same. Ruby has never really been in love so she has no idea on what to do. Plus she afraid to lose you like Pyrrha, and you mean the world to her. Yang teases everyone, making it hard to tell whenever she had legitimate feelings for you or not, so don't stress over that one. She's not sure on what to do because she knows about Ruby's feelings and doesn't want to hurt her little sister. As for Weiss and Blake, they just don't think they have the right to have feelings for you."

"O-Okay, I think I get it… maybe." He chuckled sheepishly. "But... why would Blake and Weiss feel like they don't have the right? I mean, I'm not saying they _should_ , just that… why do they feel like they shouldn't?"

"Think about it. Weiss spent the longest time shooting you down, harshly. She thought you wanted her for her money or power. Now she realizes how pure your feelings for her were. Why would should she think she should try to be with you after treating you like that? Especially since she knows there are other people, people who've treated you far better, who love you. And Blake…" He sighed again, and this time his headshake was out of sadness. "The White Fang and Adam took so much from you. Too much. She feels guilty for that, even though she had nothing to do with it. So she feels like having feelings for you is just… wrong. Unacceptable."

Jaune listened silently before slowly nodding his head. "I think I get it…" he said. "Thanks Phoenix. That… that helped. A lot."

The Writer nodded gravely before smirking. "No problem. Also, just to give you some input on this. I've seen versions of you that have dated more than one girl."

Jaune blushed and sputtered a little before laughing nervously. "Er… I… that's… nice to know?"

He chuckled again. "Calm down. I'm not telling you to do it. I'm just saying a few versions of you have. Mostly because those versions realize they had feelings for more than one of the girls that had fallen for them. They just refused to make any of them sad by choosing the others. All of the involved one discuss it and if they're all okay with it, your other versions give it a shot. Honestly, what I'm getting at is that now that you know they have feelings for you, all you need to do is to ask yourself this: how do you feel about them? Is what you feel just friendship or something infinitely more powerful?" Phoenix smiled fatherly and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I can't tell you what to do, it's not my place. But let me tell you this: just listen to your heart, not your head. These are not called matters of heart for no reason."

"I-... I-..." Jaune looked down at Phoenix's hand and tried to speak for a second, but to no avail. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling all his negativity with it. When he opened his eyes again, they were shining with determination, and even some degree of faith in himself. "Thanks Phoenix. I will. Let's get back to the others, now."

Phoenix nodded with a grin. "Yeah, let's. I have a few surprises for you all." The two walked back without saying another word about the matter, but Jaune felt like a great weight had just been lifted from his shoulders as he thought about what Phoenix had told him.

 _'Sharing, uh?'_

Yes, also that. Jaune was also thinking about that, but not just that. Well, not _completely_ just that.

They rejoined the others without problems and finally Phoenix got to his briefcase and dragged it over to the students. "Very well, I'm pretty sure you are all curious as for what is in this case, right? Let me assure you, only seven of you will receive something from within this." He smirked. "And I'm not referring to the adults, only the students."

"Is it something for me?" asked Ruby as she reclaimed her rightful seat… on Jaune's lap.

Phoenix smiled. "Yes, there is." He opened the briefcase and pulled out red metallic bracelets and anklets. "Ruby, you are a prodigy with your weapon but without it… you are pretty much a sitting duck. You really need to learn some hand-to-hand combat. It should be easy enough since you have both Yang and Ren here, although I think Ren's style would fit you better. To help you with that, I gift you these." He handed the presents to her with a smile. "They will help you channel your Aura more potently, since they are made of a powerful Aura-conductive metal… not magnetic, so you can use them against Pyrrha without becoming her puppet." He winked at the champion. "Use them to give your punches and kicks a little more effects until you properly learn how to fight unarmed. And even after you learn, it'll be nice to have increased strength and speed, don't you think?"

He smiled as he moved on to the next gift. "Weiss, you are probably the most versatile fighter of your two teams, but you are also very reliant on your Dust. And you have the tendency to fall back on some of your preferred tactics, which can make you predictable. In a fight, being predictable often means dying. I suggest you to always keep your mind open and only to fall back on those tactics when there is literally no other choice. Sometimes it's better to throw away your weapon than to be predictable, but sometimes using the techniques you know best is a good way to win. I would also like to gift you with these." He pulled out two silver speedster Dust-reloaders for Myrtenaster and handed them over to the heiress. "These will help you if you do run out of Dust during a fight. Less time to reload means less time being defenceless or inactive, so make good use of them."

The Writer then turned to Blake. "And you, Blake. You have a very aggressive fighting style, but you also know to retreat when you should. Although, when your emotions are high… that happens in most important battles… you completely forget about retreating. In those situations, it could cost you, even your life or your friends'. So, my advice is to keep those emotions under control as much as you can. Trust me, I speak from experience when I say that otherwise, you _will_ one day regret it."  
He chuckled slightly and pulled what appeared to be a fine black chain from the briefcase. "I would also like to give you a small upgrade. The chain can be used as a more suitable replacement for your sword's ribbon. It can channel the Dust from the clip through it for more versatility, and you can also use it as a strangling wire… although I somehow doubt you'll use that option often."

"Moving onto you, Yang, I have to say that my first advice is to find a way for your hair to get out of the way, either by cutting it-" He dodged a shotgun shell. "-or by braiding it and stuffing it into the back of your shirt. It may be nice and all but smart opponents will always yank at your hair in a fight, plus it can get stuck everywhere. Anyway, since I know you will not follow that advice, let's move onto the other suggestion." He chuckled. "You are a very skilled and destructive fighter, but you're a hothead. Your quick temper is your biggest flaw. You need to learn how to channel it, if you really can't _contain_ it, instead of just charging in. That will just put you, your friends or both in grave danger. And I know how hard that can be, so please take this advice to heart. Along with that, I'd like you to have these…" He pulled out a pair of yellow-bladed, black-hilted daggers and gave them to her. "For situations where blunt damage is not the best option, and you need a sharper approach, this will do nicely."

He clapped his hands and turned to the champion of the group. "Pyrrha. You are by far the most skilled fighter of your year, but you are too reliant on your Semblance. You turned it into your crutch, you can't fight without it." He shook his head even as he took a larger version of Akoúo from the case. "And you should use your shield more often to avoid exhausting your stamina or Aura by jumping around. As impressive as doing it is, a shield is meant to tank hits, and sometimes it's better to tank than dodge a hit To help with that, I have this for you." He gave the shield to Pyrrha. "Its radius is nine inches wider than your old one. It'll be heavier but it'll give you more coverage and besides, you will get used to it quickly."

"Nora, the literal powerhouse of JNPR, you're too focused on being the powerhouse. Your carefree attitude allows you to cooperate with any strategy you are given, but you should really your head more during combat. You know, rather than just swing, swing, blow stuff up. As effective as that can be, taking a second to observe your surroundings may be the difference between victory or defeat, life or death. And here's a little something I thought you'd like… although I'm sorry everyone, I'm really sorry." He handed her a pair of pink bracelets. "This have small generators in them, to build up electricity every time you swing your arms. You can use them to constantly discharge the electricity into your attack or store up the charge to release it as one big burst later."

Everyone groaned as Nora happily accepted the gift with a maniac grin. Phoenix briefly wondered if he'd done the right thing, but then he reminded himself that Nora would only use them on opponents, and thus on people who actually deserved it. She would never SMASH a friend.

"And finally you, Ren. You are very deadly in close combat and at distance… although you should really increase the calibre of your guns because they don't deal much damage. You are very agile but you have very little defence, that could prove lethal if your adversary is just as fast as you, or faster. But these should help with that." He drew a translucent black mesh shirt and matching pants that went just past his knees, while the sleeves reached past the elbows. "These have Gravity Dust woven into the material to help lessen impacts on your body. It can also reduce the impact of bullets and small explosions. It can be easily worn under your clothing, but just to be clear they are not a miracle worker. A strong enough explosion or a bullet at high enough speed can pierce it, so be sure to rely on it only if you have no other chance."

As the boy in green took it, Phoenix turned to Jaune, snapping the briefcase shut. _'Way to single a guy out,'_ thought Ozpin, raising an eyebrow.

Phoenix, instead, crossed his arms. "Jaune, if I haven't made it clear already, I'll just come out and say it outright. You have potential, more than anyone in this room, and you're slowly starting to tap into it." He sighed and sadly shook his head. "But your past is still holding you back. As someone who knows the agony of a similar trauma, I have to say this: no one can change the past, not even us Writers. What is in the past will be forever unchanged. The only thing you can do is to learn how to accept your past with all the pain it brings, like I did and like many others have done as well. If you manage to accept your past, to stop it from haunting you, then you'll be able to finally look to the present and the future, and maybe to see yourself as something more than a scarred boy without wings nor talent. With that having been said, I'm going to do the only thing I can to help ease your burden."

The Writer closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath, as if he was about to dive into the water. As he slowly exhaled, he clasped his hands together, almost breathing out into them, and a green flame ignited between his palms, as if he had just captured a Breath of Life. His eyes opened slowly, revealing steely determination and utmost focus as he slowly opened his hands, letting go of the flame. Almost as if alive, the green fire shot toward a surprised Jaune, engulfing his frame entirely, much to the Watchers' shock and fright. But instead of burning, the heat Jaune felt was more… comforting, like sinking into a hot bath. The flames slowly receded from the boy and retreated onto his back, the burning intensifying until it almost turned unbearable, where the fire shaped itself into two flaming appendages. The flames continued to reach out, spreading in the air like the flaming wings of a reborn phoenix, until they were as tall as Jaune was and with a wing span of almost three yards, and then they flashed purple for a second. Inch by inch the flames began to extinguish, starting from his back and travelling up to the tips, leaving amethyst crystal in their wake, until two large amethyst formations were attached to his back. Looking at his back in surprise and, to be honest, a little bit of worry, Jaune felt a sensation he hadn't felt in years and stiffened for a second. That was enough to start the chain reaction as cracks appeared on the amethyst before the crystal shattered, revealing two massive stark white wings. The boy froze and looked at Phoenix in shock, but the Writer just gave him a small and tired smile. "One less thing to shackle you to your past."

The poor boy was still in shock, not managing to form even just a sentence. "I-… I-… You-…How-…" he continued to stammer, shaking with shock and awe. "How did you-… how-…"

"J-Jaune?" He froze as Ruby's small voice piped up. "I… they're… they're beautiful…"

He finally unfroze and looked at her. He… he must've been dreaming. There was no way… it was impossible, he had lost his wings years before. It just wasn't… no, it had to be some twisted and cruel joke. It had to be, there was no way… but Ruby wouldn't have taken part in such a vicious joke, would she? He had to… he had to be dreaming. He had probably dreamt the whole thing… no way, it wasn't possible. Fate, who had been a topnotch ass to him, had really just given his wings back? No it wasn't possible… not after all the pain and misery he had… not after everything he'd gone through, it wasn't possible… in a mere second he had his wings back… that… that…

His knees failed him and he fell as he began to sob, crying for each and every day he had thought he'd be forever chained to the ground, crying for all the pain and all the sorrow he'd had to endure, but most of all crying in relief and gratitude for having gotten his wings back. Burning tears fell from his eyes as he finally, _finally_ cried.

They were back. His wings were really back. After three years of dreaming and hoping and despairing he really had his wings back. He was free again, free to race the birds and free to try and touch the clouds, free to chase the last lights of the dying sunset and free to be the first to greet every newborn dawn. Free to get as close to the stars as he could every night, and free to shower in the tempestuous clouds on every stormy day. He was finally free of part of the unbearable weight that had burdened him down for years. He was _free_.

He had to fly.

He didn't even realize the others had gotten closer until he basically ran Ruby over as he bolted for the door. Worried shouts followed him as everyone ran after the fleeing boy, even Phoenix was preoccupied something had gone wrong. He sprinted down the hallways and up the corridors until he finally reached the largest Arena he'd seen in the fortress so far, blasting the door off its hinges with a powerful gust of wind. He barely took three steps into the Arena before he flapped his wings once and jumped, quickly following up with more and more flaps, each stronger than the previous one.

He was in the air. He was airborne again. He could fly again. He flapped his wings faster and faster, forcing himself higher and higher before suddenly diving forwards and darting around the room, circling its perimeter effortlessly. It was so easy. His mother didn't call him her little Airborn Knight for no reason. A pun Yang would've been proud of, sure, but it was fitting. He was born to fly, born in the air. He could stand living on the ground, sure, especially if he had some really nice girls to keep him company…

Wait, that wasn't supposed to be thought.

…but flying was… it was _freedom_. Exhilarating, thrilling, addicting, electrifying _freedom_.

"Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

 _ **BOOOOM…skreeeeeeiiiiigh**_ _ **…**_ _ **CRAAASH…**_ "ow..."

But maybe he still had to get used to flying again. Especially indoors. The entire room shook as he dived straight into a wall, indenting it for several feet, before crashing down to the floor. Immediately, several people surrounded him. Unless his eyes were wrong, there were five Rubies, three Pyrrhas, three Yangs, four Weisses, two Blakes, two Rens, four Phoenixes, three Ozpins and… five Noras.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"Jaune, calm down, you just got yourself a concussion, stay calm," all three Pyrrhas said in unison, forcing him to sit back down. No, they couldn't understand. There were _five Noras_. Five! How was Remnant supposed to withstand five Noras!?

"You must be a little disoriented, give yourself a bit of time," instructed Weiss, her delicate hands not feeling delicate any more as she forcefully pushed him back down. "You shook the fortress with that hit, it's a miracle you're even conscious. Don't push yourself."

"Eheh, that was priceless," laughed an obnoxious voice. Immediately, all the faces of the thirty-one people around him darkened. He titled his head back and looked at the three Cardins and four Neptunes standing on the doorway, with what appeared to be at least three dozens little black dogs running around them, barking in unison. "Wings or not Jauney's still a clown, an idiot and a failure at everything."

Jaune tried to use his brain and understand if that was supposed to be an insult or not, but a new spectacle distracted him. The close-to-forty dogs all opened their mouths and fired blasts of fire at the seven idiots who were laughing. He grinned at that and then blinked as his visions slowly betrayed him, leaving behind just one dog igniting one Cardin and one Neptune.

Looking back to the people around him, he saw that there was just one Ruby, one Pyrrha, one Yang, one Weiss, one Blake, one Ren, one Phoenix, one Ozpin and -may the Gods be thanked!- only one Nora. "H-Hey guys. I guess I flew a bit too fast, didn't I?" he said with a grin.

"You idiot!" He recoiled as Weiss slapped him hard before blinking in shock as the heiress hugged him and buried her face into his chest. "When you fell and stopped moving, I thought… I thought…"

"Shhh, it's okay, I'm fine, see?" He patted her head. "I was just a little overwhelmed by the joy and allow it to make me act recklessly. I'm fine now." Weiss nodded and slowly detached herself from him. He smiled as he looked at Phoenix. He had to thank him in some way. He had just the right idea.

"Nora?" he called out. "Group hug on Phoenix."

The Writer paled.

/- timeskip: twenty minutes later, back to the Watching Hall. -/

"It's okay Nora, you can let go now."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Really really?"

"Really really."

"R-"

"Nora!" This time Ren was the one to speak, and the gingerhead immediately detached herself from the still slightly blueish Phoenix, who could finally breath properly again. As much as he enjoyed hugs, Nora was a handful even for those in godhood. That was one of the reasons the houseowner had decided to leave all the god-talk to Phoenix.

The Writer coughed a little before nodding in thanks. That had been as cute as it had been dangerous. But after all, no pain no gain was the saying, wasn't it? "Very well, so… any questions before we start?" he asked, and only got headshakes in response. "Perfect! We can start the viewing!"

The Watchers reclaimed their seats, although this time something was different. Jaune, who now had a bag of ice pressed to his forehead, found himself a little swarmed by girls. On his lap still was Ruby, who by now had probably become a permanent red ornament for the boy, but around him chaos had decided to place other four people. By his sides there were Yang, on his left, and Pyrrha, on his right, both having slithered a hand behind him and placed it on his lower back. On their laps there were Weiss, on Pyrrha's, and Blake, on Yang's, both holding one of his arms like a teddy bear.

Weiss's explanation had simply been "You're gonna hurt yourself if we leave you even for a second, so shut up."

In his head, even the poor Jeyin synapsis, who was still shaken by the hit, weakly sent him a notification with _'Weiss cares… maybe a bit too much.'_

Finally, after all the drama, idiocy and fluff -Sun and Helios sniffed-, the screen started up.

 **It was Sunday now, Jaune had woken up slightly after Pyrrha this morning which was odd. But considering he exhausted himself the previous day, he chalked it up to a fluke. Jaune changed quickly and was about to leave but Pyrrha stopped him. "You don't want to shower first, Jaune?" she asked.**

 **The turned back to her, "Not yet. I wanna train my Semblance a bit this morning. No point showering before a workout." He smiled at her.**

"His Semblance?" repeated Ironwood. "Interesting. I'm curious as to what kind of training does he follow."

"Probably not something similar to what we do, his Semblance is far too different," noted Sun, allowing Helios to climb down from his lap. "Here you go, boy, there isn't fluff at the moment. Good boy." The dog barked in agreement.

Who would've guessed the two of them would've become such good friends in such a short time…

 **"Would you mind if I join you?"**

 **Jaune sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "Actually I do." Pyrrha looked saddened before Jaune quickly continued, "It's nothing to do with you, Pyr. It's just when I start working with the new elements, they can sometimes get out of hand and it can sometimes be dangerous for anyone else."**

"It's just as I said, at first he was probably more dangerous to himself than to the Grimm," nodded Winter. "Apparently he hasn't mastered this new element so it's still very dangerous. Although he shouldn't forget that he should rely on his teammates."

"I'm sure he knows what he's doing. But even if he doesn't…" Goodwitch held up a Scroll. "There's a reason we have Aurameters in our Scrolls. Just insert the student's ID and you shall be able to view their Aura levels, plus the Scrolls automatically set off an alarm when any of the watched students' Aura drops into the red zone."

"That's really useful…" noted Neptune. "Why didn't we have that in Haven too?"

"Beacon is maybe the most prestigious school for Huntsmen in Remnant both because of its peculiar management and methods of learning," smiled Ozpin, lifting his mug as if to salute. No one knew how that mug could still contain coffee after so much time. They didn't know Ozpin had ordered several Thermos of coffee he had then hidden around the room for refills. "There are tons of other options on those Scrolls as well."

"Like the Faunusizing app?" Phoenix asked with a smirk.

"The what?" asked Blake.

"The Faunusizing app. Inserting a student's ID allows the user to get a picture of how said student would look if they were a Faunus," explained Phoenix. "If I'm not wrong, the original author made it for discriminating purposes, but it was so positively received they just decided to enjoy the money and forget the racism. Beacon bought it and applied it to all its Scrolls to teach that deep down we're all equals."

" _After_ the viewing," sternly commanded Goodwitch as almost all students reached for their Scrolls.

 **She looked up quickly, "What about you?"**

 **"The first time I use an Advance Element is the most dangerous. The risks go down after that so I should be relatively safe." She still looked unsure so he held out his hand, "Here, give me your scroll." She handed it to him and he took his out, after tapping on his screen for a bit Pyrrha's got an alert. "There. If my aura goes into the red, you'll get an alert and my GPS. So, you can safe me this time." He said with a smirk before handing her scroll back to her.**

 **She looked at her scroll then back at him, "Okay. Just be careful, please."**

 **"Aren't I always?" he said with a smile, until Pyrrha gave him a look. "Alright, alright. I'll be careful." He smiled and left to go grab his swords. He failed to see a certain heiress leave her room slightly after him and follow.**

"And here I thought Blake was the curious one," smirked Yang. "You know, curiosity killed the cat and all of that."

"That's incredibly racist, you know that?" Blake huffed, annoyed.

"It depends on who says it and how it's said," interrupted Jaune. "She didn't mean anything by it, you know that, and she was just teasing. It was a harmless joke."

 **After Jaune grabbed his swords and left his armor behind, he made his way to the edge of the Emerald Forest. It was far enough away to keep away from any prying eyes. He didn't want anyone seeing this. Jaune drew Kakiri and his eyes shifted to crimson. He then stabbed it into the ground and started to focus his fire aura into his hand. A second later a fireball was in his hand, he pointed his palm into the sky and let out a stream of fire. He stopped it a few seconds later. "Okay, that's how I do that. But let's see what else I can do." He created another fireball and threw it at a boulder ten feet away. It slammed into it almost dead center. He threw a dozen with each hand and then tried to send fire blasts from punching. It took a few tries before he got the feel of how to successfully do this. After doing this for a good fifteen minutes, he took a breather. "Okay, that should give my hand-to-hand a boost. Now to the main event."**

"Wow, that's really useful," exclaimed Neptune. "I mean, is there something he _can't_ do with Dust?"

"He can't fly," offered Sun.

"He can, he uses Fukiri with its Air Dust and he can recreated flight," Neptune pointed out. "He can shoot fire or water, create Earth spikes, arcs of lightning, move at super speed, freeze enemies, command plants, create gusts of wind, pressurize water, create walls of rocks, _waves_ of rocks, spears of rocks, bullets of pressurized water… is there something he can't do?"

"He can't stop time, or mess with it?" offered Ruby.

"Plus he can't heal people," added Yang.

"And he can't teleport or create illusions," supplied Blake, thinking of her own Semblance.

"And he can only get physical effects, without any chance of mental or psychological ones," finished Ren.

"Yeah, yeah, sure…" grumbled Neptune. "But I still think his Semblance is way too strong."

"Strength comes for a price, Vasilias," stated Phoenix. "Besides, Jaune's Semblances and powers across the Multiverse are often incredible. That's probably just who he is," he added with a wink and a smile at the knight.

 **Jaune walked back over to Kakiri and checked its dust level, it was about two thirds from being full. He pulled a vial of fire dust out of his pocket and unscrewed the pommel of his fire blade before filling it completely. When that was done, he screwed the pommel back into place than drew Fukiri and Dokiri before stabbing them into the ground to the right and left of him respectively. This formed a perfect triangle that Jaune stood in the center of. He sat down in a meditative position and started to focus his aura, once his aura was calmed he started to use his Semblance to absorb the three different dusts around him. Almost immediately, he felt the three energies waring inside of him. The same thing happened when he started learning to hold two different energies inside of him but this was a whole different level. He couldn't exactly calm down and balance the three energies inside of him, so he decided to skip that and to try to fuse them together. It wasn't any better, it felt like two of the energies were trying to fuse and push the other out altogether. He kept trying until the pain became too much and he stopped his Semblance completely.**

 **He was taking deep breathes and was slumped forward slightly. "Forgot how much this hurts." He took a couple of minutes before he tried again with very similar results. On his third try, he started to make progress but not much. He stopped his Semblance and fell backwards with an annoyed groan. "This isn't working at all!"**

"Plus there's also the fact that every time he works on something, the Swordsman usually gets impatient and hurts himself," Phoenix sweat-dropped. "Learning something like that requires maybe even days of failed attempts before getting it right. He can try to learn it in a day but he normally ends up either hurled back from an explosion or very grumpy because he failed to learn it."

"Umptf," scoffed Cardin. "Anything you can't learn in a day is not worth being learned in the first place."

"And that's why your most advanced technique is `crash, smash, bang`," snarked Phoenix.

 **He was getting mad until a woman's voice echoed in his head, one that was one that meant safety and strength. The voice of his teacher, 'Calm yourself, Jaune, emotions can give you strength but they also force you to make mistakes. This power is yours to master but first you must master yourself.' He smiled slightly at that and sat up. He took a few calming breathes and focused his Semblance once again. He started to force the energies together but found the same resistance. He was about to keep pushing until he shifted the energy inside of him on accident and felt a hint of that power from before. This gave him an idea, instead on trying to force them together he started weaving them together. The process was still painful but it seemed easier. Soon he was done and he could feel the power surge. He opened his eyes and saw that his aura was shifting between brown, light green and crimson. He couldn't see this but his eyes were a combination of those same colors.**

"Is he going to do it?" asked Yang. "I thought you said it would take days!"

"He's just starting to slowly understand how to use three elements at the same time," replied Ozpin. "It's like saying that one can learn how to use a sword in a day. Well, they can learn the basics but they'll need time before being proficient enough to use it properly."

"Still, I thought he would need more time before managing that…" noted Weiss.

"Well, Mr Arc here discovered his Semblance just a little while ago when sparring with Ms Xiao Long, and in the same training session he also learned how to shoot pressurized blasts of air," smiled Goodwitch. "I'd say _that_ is an incredibly fast improvement."

 **He slowly stood up and walked to one of the trees, he started to send aura into his right hand and it was now glowing white. He placed it on the ground and the same pyramid formed around the tree but much smaller, just big enough for said tree. He looked at the tree and closed his fist sending aura into the pyramid and soon it shined that bright white before it was gone along with everything inside of it. But because he was now calm and could sense his aura clearer, he could feel what exactly this new power was doing. It was destroying whatever was inside it at a molecular level. He shuddered slightly at this, no wonder why his body feels like it's being torn apart. He looked down at his hands and slowly sent aura into them and again they shined white. He held them in front of him and started to focus his mind on what he wanted. After a few seconds a cube started to form between his hands, just floating between them. He was proud for a second until the cube started to destabilize. He tried his hardest to keep it stable and started to panic, that was a mistake. As soon as he lost his cool the cube exploded and sent him flying backwards into a tree which almost snapped from the impact.**

 **He groaned in pain, "Damn it. Was making such good progress too."**

"Ouch," winced Qrow. "That's gonna hurt for sure."

"I guess you have experience being slammed into stuff, don't you?" Winter smirked smugly.

"Hey, there's no need to tell everyone what we do in bed," Qrow shot back, causing her to sputter angrily. "If the Ice Queen likes it rough it's not my problem, I'm more than happy to oblige."

"You indecent pig!"

 **"Jaune!" he heard someone yelling and turned to see Weiss running over to him. She got over to him and knelt beside him. "Are you okay?!"**

 **After his shock was gone he nodded, "Yeah. I'm good, just sore."**

 **She sighed, "That's good. I thought you killed yourself for a second there, which was moronic." She said trying to slip back into her cold façade.**

 **"How'd you know I was even out here?" He gave her an analytical stare and she looked away but he had an idea, "Did you follow me?"**

 **She started to sound nervous, "Don't get the wrong idea. I thought you'd do something stupid and it's my responsibility to make sure you don't go overboard." She said with confidence.**

 **Jaune smirked for a second and placed a hand under his chin, "Really? And why is it your responsibility? You're not on my team and you aren't my partner." Her eyes went wide and she mumbled something he couldn't hear. "I'm sorry, what was that?"**

 **"Because you're my friend, you dolt." She said slightly bashfully.**

"Aww, you're adorable when you're not trying to be all prime and proper," grinned Yang.

"S-Shut up!"

"She's not wrong, you should really let yourself go more," nodded Jaune. "You're cute when you aren't so strict."

"I…" Weiss blushed ever so slightly. "I'll think about it, okay? I-I don't make promises, though!"

 **Jaune smiled and gently placed his hand on her shoulder, "Thank you, Snow Angel. That means a lot." She gave him a small smile in return. He started to stand and she started to help him up. When they were both standing up, they looked at each other and she realized how close she was to him before she quickly stepped away. He smiled slightly and went to reclaim his swords.**

 **As he was doing so, Weiss decided to ask him a question, "So, that's the power you used to kill those Grimm in that village?"**

 **He nodded, "Yup. But it's far from perfect. My aura wasn't completely synced with the element."**

 **"What exactly does that mean?" she asked confused.**

 **"For me to have full control of an element, I have to absorb enough of its energy into my aura. When it's done properly my aura shifts to the same color as my eyes. But as you saw, it was fluctuating between the three colors of the individual energies because the energies weren't fused completely. That make sense?"**

"And that's what I meant," stated Phoenix. "Despite his power, he still needs lots of practice. He can manage to replicate it… kind of… but as he admits he hasn't been able to actually use an Exceed Element, just three Elements at the same time."

"I didn't see any difference except for the colour," noted Ruby.

"Well, let me make you an example with two elements. You've seen what Ice does, right?" Everyone nodded. "Well, Ice is Air and Water. When incomplete, he basically creates the water he then cools down with Air. When complete, and so controlled, he can directly create ice. As you can guess the effects are basically the same but the process is different."

"But the effects are basically the same," Ren pointed out.

"Yes, but he has much better control when they work together," grinned Phoenix.

 **Weiss nodded, "So if you knew it wasn't fully completed, why try using it?"**

 **"That's just how it works. I need practice with the incomplete form so that way I can use the completed version." He thinks for a second, "Pretty much, I use the experience and knowledge I gain from the incomplete element to help me figure out how to complete it and use it properly."**

 **She nodded again, "That's still dangerous."**

 **Jaune just shrugs, "It's the only way I know how to master it."**

 **She huffed slightly, "So, why are you out here anyways? You could've practiced it anywhere."**

 **"I don't want anyone seeing it. Have to keep my Semblance a secret." He smiled.**

 **Weiss just gave him a glare and was clearly annoyed, "But why? This is clearly dangerous, so why do it where you can't get help if you need it?"**

 **His smile fell and he just looked at her, she wasn't going to give up without an answer. He looked away, "Because I hate seeing what I usually see when people see my Semblance."**

"Pay attention, please," stated Phoenix. "You've complained how his Semblance is too powerful, now listen what is the true price for it."

 **Weiss gave him a confused look, "And what is that?"**

 **He looked her in the eyes, "Fear. When people see my power they become afraid of me." He sighed, "And for good reason." Weiss looked stunned and he continued. "My Semblance is dangerous. If I lose control, there's no telling what could happen." He held up his hand and looked down at it. With the last of the elemental energy inside of him created a small cyclone in his hand. "The elements can easily create or destroy. And that choice is up to me. Who in their right mind wouldn't be afraid of that?" And with that he let the cyclone fade and let his hand fall.**

"Individuals can trust people," stated Ozpin, nodding. "But the crowd will always be afraid of the strong or the unknown. Such a Semblance wielder would be hated and even hunted down."

"We have a saying, in the universe I come from," said Phoenix. "It says `the crowd behaves like a dumb, wounded animal. It will lash out at anything that looks even remotely dangerous or is unknown.` It's unfortunately a harsh truth. The people won't stop to ask questions before they kill whatever they are afraid of. And the people are afraid of what they can't control or understand."

"But not everyone would!" argued Ruby. "There are good people as well."

"Just look at the Faunus in Remnant. Remnant is full of good people but you know something? There's another saying from where I come from. `All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.`" Phoenix frowned. "That means that even if you're against Faunus discrimination, if you don't act to help the Faunus then you're just allowing it to happen. The Faunus weren't condemned by all of Remnant. They were condemned by the… what? Fifteen, twenty percent? Racist twenty percent of its population, while the other eighty percent didn't do anything. In a way, you're guilty as well."

"Hey, we could've done nothing!" argued Yang.

"If that's what everyone thinks, then who is going to do something?" was the Writer's retort. "You can always do something. For example you could've pummelled Cardin when he bullied Velvet, and then accepted detention because that's what you thought was the right thing to do."

 **"I'm not afraid." He looked back at her and she was looking into his eyes. "I don't trust people easily but you've earned it so much quicker than most. I've seen who you are and how you care for people." She walked closer to him until they were only a foot or two apart. "You're the most genuine person I've ever met, Jaune. I could never be afraid of you." She looked away with a light shade of pink on her cheeks.**

 **Jaune just looked at her and smiled. "Thank you, Snow Angel." She turned back to him and quickly turned away when their eyes met. "Is something wrong?"**

 **She crossed her arms, "I just remember what you said before. I liked the compliment but I don't like when people stare at my scar. Its ugly." She said with a bit of hate behind it.**

"You… you don't like your scar?" asked Jaune, turning to the heiress. She frowned and shook her head.

"It's a mark of shame," she explained with a sigh. "I got it because I wasn't fast enough to dodge a hit from a Schnee Guardian Mecha. I wasn't skilled enough and that scar is a permanent reminder of that."

Jaune blinked before reaching out and tracing it with his index as Weiss went rigid. "I think it just shows how you haven't given up even after you ran out of Aura, and it shows that, as opposite to all the Huntsmen wannabe without scars, you've already faced challenges and you've won them over." He finished tracing it and tapped her cheek. "Plus, it's cool. Gives you a badass look."

Weiss blinked and nodded shakily, pink tinting her cheeks.

 **"Weiss, I don't care about the scar. Besides it's not the worst scar I've seen."**

 **She looked at him, "And what is the worst scar you've seen?" She asked, slightly heated. He looked at her and quickly came to a decision. He reached for the zipper on his hoodie and slowly unzipped all the way down to show his black shirt underneath it. He grabbed the hem of his shirt and slowly started to pull it up. Weiss stepped back slightly, "What are you doing?" She stopped with a gasp as she saw it. With his shirt all the way up she could see his toned chest and stomach. And the huge scar that ran from his right shoulder all the way across to the left side of his waist. The scar was discolored compared to the rest of him and was an inch to an inch and a half wide. She was staring in shock until she heard him speak.**

"That's a mean gash," whistled Sun. "He got cleaved in two!"

"I'm surprised he even managed to survive something like that," commented Ironwood. "The haemorrhage should've killed him in maybe a couple of minutes."

"Don't worry, he'll probably explain it," replied Ozpin, gesturing to the screen.

 **"This is the worst scar I've seen."**

 **She slowly walked up to him again and started to raise her hand to touch it but stopped a couple inches from it. She looked up at him with a question in her eyes and he nodded. She gently touched it and slowly ran he fingers over it. She could feel the ridges of it and figured the wound went deep. No doubt it was extremely painful. She started talking in a shaky voice, "What happened?"**

 **"When I was six, my family went camping. When my younger sisters and I were playing, an Alpha Beowolf attacked us. The only thing I remember is that I jumped in front of my sisters and it cut into my chest." He shuddered slightly at the memory. "Next thing I remember, I was in the hospital. I should've died but my father unlocked my aura just in time."**

"That is one of the reasons why he's so strong. Normally, Huntsmen in training have their Auras unlocked during combat school's second year, and so around thirteen. He had his Aura unlocked since he was six, so he had an advantage on the others. As always, though, great power carries a great cost, and he'll forever bear the marks of said cost."

"Does that mean Arc is going to become so strong?" sneered Cardin.

Phoenix blinked before bursting out laughing. "And what do you call what he showed all along if not strength? He carried on without his wings, forged his way into Beacon to try and prevent what he went through from happening ever again, withstood all the insults and ridicule he got thrown at, won over all the challenges he was faced with, and even got several gi- I mean, he even got several friends like them, loyal and caring, unlike you who have three cowards as friends." He wiped a fake tear from his eye. "If that's not strength then I'm a platypus."

"What's a playbus?" asked Nora.

"A platypus, Nora," explained Ren. "An Ornithorhynchus Anatinus."

"A what?"

"An animal, Nora."

"Aaah."

 **Weiss looked down at her feet and her hand laid on his chest where his scar was, "I'm sorry."**

 **"I'm not." She looked up at him in disbelief. "This scar is a reminder to me. It reminds me that even at a young age, I would defend those I care about. If not for this, I wouldn't have my aura and I wouldn't be becoming a Huntsman." She saw determination in his eyes before they softened a bit. "This scar was painful but it gave me a lot. All scars leave memories for us to never forget. Bad ones mostly, but sometimes they have good ones too." He slowly raised his hand to her scar, she flinched away for a second before she let him touch it with his thumb and gently cupped her cheek. He was gently rubbing the half below her eye as he spoke, "I don't know how you got this scar and you don't need to tell me but it shows the world that you have what it takes to be a Huntress. It shows that no matter what happens, no matter what pain you may receive, you'll endure it and move on." He smiled at her. "Plus, in my opinion, I don't think it hinders your beauty. Just enhances it."**

 **She just kept staring at him before she closed her eyes and leaned into his hand, "Thank you, Jaune."**

 **"Anytime, Snow Angel." he aid genuinely with a smile.**

 **After a minute or so, she realized how they were standing. She blushed deeply and took her hand away from his chest before stepping back. "This doesn't go beyond here. Got it?"**

 **He nodded with a smile. He let his shirt back down and zipped his hoodie up. "Let's head back." The two walked in silence but it was a comfortable one. Weiss looked up a Jaune and smiled. 'He's a dunce but he's a reliable dunce.'**

"Aww, it's so cute to see the Ice Queen warming up," grinned Yang even as she was swatted by Weiss. "And don't think I haven't caught the fact you're not denying it…"

"What the- Helios?!" Blake lifted her leg and everyone stared at the adorable puppy slightly nibbling on her shin. He whined once and nibbled again, although he couldn't actually hurt her "What is he doing?!"

Phoenix chuckled. "He's a dog, forgive him," he said. "He knows you smell partly like a cat and so he tries to play with you a little, although he can't do anything. You have Aura."

"And besides, his teeth are so small he probably couldn't hurt her even if she had run out of Aura," snorted Cardin.

Phoenix grinned at him. "Oh, no, he could. Helios, jerk, bite!" he said, pointing to Cardin, who snorted again and crossed his arms. The small dog released Blake and barked before violet flames encircled his head and began to spread until they covered a volume of at least four feet per two feet per two feet. When the flames dissipated…

Cardin shrieked and began to run as Helios tried to bite him, now sporting a large T-Rex head with very large teeth.

Everyone burst out laughing.

 ** _AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! A Tyrannosaurus Canis in the Watching Hall!_**

 ** _Don't worry he'll be back to adorable in no time. He just has to chew Cardin off. Wink._**

 ** _Aaah, that was both hard and sooooo very satisfying to write. I'm talking about the chapter, of course. I hope you liked because I really put very much effort in making this. Phoenix supplied me with his parts of the dialogues, so hats off to him as well! Anyway, let's move onto the Omake, shall we?_**

 ** _I'm sure Phoenix and at least a few others will love this._**

MORNING TROUBLES

It was a peaceful day, or at least it was going to be. At the moment it was just morning, and the residents of the Arc household were all sleeping without a care in the world. The sky was cloudy and the light barely managed to filter through the curtains, so the room was shrouded in pleasant and cool shadow. Jaune Soleil Arc and his five girlfriends -Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna- were all sleeping on the Emperor-sized bed. For the ones who don't know, an Emperor-sized bed is 50% larger than a King-sized bed. All was perfect as they snuggled to each other, until...

 _Ring ring_. _Ring Ring_.

Until the alarm rang out in the otherwise silent room, rousing the six sleeping lovers. Jaune reached out to stop the sound and met a round object with a button on top. Victorious, he pressed the button, only for Yang to yelp. He apologized sleepily and moved on...

"Eep!"

Nope, that was Blake.

"J-Jaune?"

And then Pyrrha's waist. He growled in annoyance.

 _Ring ring. Ring ring._

Damn that alarm. Maybe it was on the other side. He reached out with his left hand to stop that infernal ringing.

"J-J-Ja-Jaune?!"

Whoops, he'd forgotten Weiss was self-conscious about her chest being touched.

"Mmh? No... sleep..."

 _Ring ring. Ring ring._

His hand finally gave up at Ruby and returned to embrace the girls. His eyes, still closed, narrowed and he growled.

With a flick of his wrist, two large hammers of compressed air smashed both nightstands to pieces and finally killed the damn alarm.

 ** _And that's what we all wished we could do when the damn alarm rings and we don't want to leave our bed! So, the chapter's over, and as usual..._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh._**


	18. Chapter 17

**_Hey guys! I'm back with a whole new load of craziness! And fluff. But mostly craziness._**

Several cramped stomachs later, Helios finally returned to his usual puppy form, still keeping part of Cardin's pants (the back) between his teeth, with a doggish grin on his face. The large teen was, as expected, not happy about it. Helios happily dropped the cloth on Sun's lap, having decided to choose him as his best friend in the group. Maybe it had something to do with the name.

When everyone settled down again, Jaune noticed that the girls were _still_ very close to him. He didn't mind, _of course he didn't_ , but he couldn't help but wonder if they were ever gonna let go of him. And as nice as it was, his muscles were getting kinda stiff. He was about to ask the girls to train a little, and then he got the inspiration.

The inspiration for the idea that would allow him to stretch a little.

"Uhm… girls?" he called out, and five sets of eyes turned to him. "Not that I mind this position…" _'Always say you don't mind.'_ "…but I do have something to show you."

Pyrrha's, Yang's and Blake's faces turned crimson as their eyes dropped lower for a second.

Ruby, instead, just got up with a small pout and allowed him to move. He sat up and stretched, feeling so very satisfied when he felt his wings pop as well. Oh yeah, it was good to have them back. He was so lost admiring his wings that he barely noticed Ruby climbing onto his back.

"Hey Jaune, why is your armour melted back here?" she asked, pointing to the base of his wings, where the armour was indeed melted as if hit by a great heat. Jaune had the inkling what had caused it and glanced at Phoenix.

The Writer whistled innocently.

"It's nothing, Ruby, I just have to get my-nnnnnghh…" Whatever he had to say was lost as he groaned. His whole body relaxed as he melted into Ruby's hands, that were caressing his back right between his wings. A second passed, then another, and then he realized just what she had been doing, and the implications of said action.

He shrieked girlishly… no, sorry, not even girls would be able to reach such an acute sound, he shrieked like a bird… and jumped away, making Ruby fall on her rear, much to her displeasure. Everyone looked at the fallen Huntress in training, then looked at the very red-faced boy and cocked their heads in confusion. Phoenix, instead, just burst out laughing at his embarrassment.

"Ow. Jaune, why?" Ruby pouted cutely. Jaune felt his willpower thin a little but he soldiered on. Without looking back, he darted for the door and ran until he reached the armoury. Only when he reached it, he stopped to take a breath.

That had been way too close.

"Have you forgotten my Semblance is speed?"

"Aaah!" He twirled around and found no one. Then he lowered his gaze to meet Ruby's silver eyes pouting up at him. He inwardly wailed at her adorableness… No! He had to resist, dammit! "R-Ruby… w-why have you f-followed me?"

"I wanted to know if I did something wrong earlier," she shrugged before her eyes went wide. "I… oh Oum, I'm so sorry Jaune, I forgot you have a scar, I just noticed you liked it and…"

"I-It wasn't that…" Jaune swallowed dryly and tried to focus somewhere else. Anywhere else. _Everywhere_ else. But damn, those eyes of hers were hypnotic at best. "I… I just… well, it's more of a… I just remembered… something. S-Something my parents taught me…"

"What?" asked the innocent Reaper.

 _'Nope. Nope. Nope nope nope. I'm not having_ _ **this**_ _conversation with Ruby,'_ thought Jaune as he began to sweat bullets. "P-Plus I had to go take my new armour and weapon to show the others…"

It didn't work as he hoped. Ruby smiled indeed, but she didn't let go of the argument. Damn that curiosity of hers! It was endearing but why couldn't she accept it when he obviously tried to change the subject?! "Yep, I'm really eager to see your new armour since you didn't allow me to, but what is it that your parents told you?"

Jaune ran a hand through his hair in despair. "I… you see…" Ruby's expression didn't change, and felt like he was slowly wilting from the inside. "I… what you did… it's not that I didn't like it… that's kind of the point, I _did_ like it, I liked it very much… but that's the point, it… what you did…"

"Yes?"

Jaune sighed in despair. "It had… implications."

Ruby tilted her head on the side.

 _'No… no… no, please… to any god who's listening, please don't force me to explain this…'_ Jaune thought, eyes widening. Finally, Ruby spoke, sealing his doom. "What implications?"

He was done. He couldn't lie or she would either see through it, unlikely, or do something both of them might regret later. But telling the truth… it would've been like taking all the embarrassment he had ever experienced in Beacon, and square it. Although the implications were also kinda appealing…

No! Bad Jaune! Bad!

He looked around for help, but there was no one and nothing he could use as a distraction. Ruby was awfully close, and still looking up at him with innocent curiosity. He… he was doomed. "It has… intimate implications," he tried.

"Intimate?" repeated Ruby, and then she smiled. For some reason, her cheeks were red. Maybe she had exerted herself running after him? She was fast but endurance wasn't exactly her forte. "But we _are_ close! We're f-friends, right?"

Jaune didn't miss the little slip of the tongue, but he had far more pressing matters to attend to. "I… You see…" He sighed. "Ruby, I mean _sexual implications_."

"Oh."

"That's used as foreplay and from what my parents told me, it's…" He coughed and looked away, thus missing the sudden peak in interest within Ruby. "By doing it, you basically said you were horny and wanted to… well, have sex with me."

"H-Have sex?" she repeated. Hadn't he been so thoroughly humiliated and embarrassed, he might've noticed how she stuttered more out of interest than embarrassment. Inside his mind, Jeyin started banging her synapsis head against the frontal lobe.

"Y-Yeah… it's kind of the strongest way of saying that…" He coughed again and tried to dispel the embarrassment. "B-But you didn't know that, s-so it's no problemnnnnnnggghhh…"

Ruby cleared her throat, continuing to rub his back _right_ between his wings. "W-Well… we both know I don't mean anything by this, so…" She innocently looked away. "W-Why deny yourself something you like?"

"Nnnnnnggghhhh…"

"So… can we continue?" she rubbed harder.

" _Nnnnnnnnnnggghhhhh…_ "

"It's not like it _has_ to mean that, right?"

" **Nnnnnnnnnnngggggggghhhhh…** "

"As long as we don't tell the others…"

" _ **Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh…**_ "

"Perfect!"

/-/

It took them twenty minutes to go back to the Watching Hall. And when they arrived…

 _Thud_. _Thud_.

Weiss and Pyrrha, the two most susceptible to aesthetics, fell to the ground. An instant later they were back up, not wanting to miss a second of the sight before them. Yang had forgotten her mouth open and was that drool on the corner of Blake's mouth? It didn't matter, they were all staring at Jaune.

In their humble opinions, he had looked, pardon the term, _yummy_ even earlier. Seeing him in full armour was even better.

He was wearing a breastplate with overlapping shoulderguards over a fine chainmail. He also had armguards on his upper arms and bracer gauntlets on his forearms and hands. He had also found -he suspected Phoenix for that- some wing plates to cover the limbs' inner side. He also wore a pair of armoured boots-greaves hybrid and a pair of jambs on his thighs. Both greaves and bracers ended pointedly to offer more offensive power. Instead of a helmet, on his head there was a silver crown with gold accents. The whole armour was made of a gold-like material, and then they looked at his weapon.

His new weapon was another sword and shield combo, but far different now. His shield was a golden tear-shield with razor-sharp edges and a blade protruding from the middle to allow better shield attacks. Two silver barrels could be seen in the inside of the shield, one on each side. The sword, instead, was now longer and lither, with a silver blade and a golden hilt. What really caught the eye were the two crescents that made up the guard, one golden and the other silver.

With a grin, Jaune activated the mechashift.

The shield split into two and the blade retracted into its centre. The two barrels rotated until they were no more visible, and the two crescents on the blade closed on the blade. With one swift movement, Jaune sheathed the blade _into_ the shield's centre and activated the sword's mechashift. In a second, the sword's handle lengthened until Jaune was standing with a golden halberd in his hands, the two halves of the shield making up the axe heads.

"Do you like it?"

Honestly, he regretted asking that question. Immediately, everyone began to ask questions. Some of them, from Weiss, Winter, Ironwood and Goodwitch, were technical questions he'd rather have left to Ruby. Some of them -Nora- were just incoherent babbling about how cool he looked. Then there were Sun, Ozpin, Qrow, Yang, Blake and Pyrrha complimenting him for how he looked and/or his new weapon. And of course there were two sourpusses, Cardin and Neptune, who grumbled and scoffed at his new look.

Finally, they were torn from their conversation as they heard Ruby speak. "Ehm… Phoenix? What are you doing?"

Everyone looked at the Writer, whose eyes were glowing with rainbow-coloured flames, as he was scribbling down on a notebook… not a computer, a true note _book_. Although his title was still Writer, not Scribe. He was so absorbed by what he was doing that he didn't even notice Ruby calling him multiple times, until she decided to poke his shoulder.

At that, the flames dissipated and he looked at her, blinking once before nodding slightly. "Oh, sorry, I was distracted, what were you saying?" he asked amiably as he put away his notebook.

"Oh, nothing, I just asked what were you doing," repeated the girl.

"Just documenting a world in my free time," he shrugged as if it was nothing before he stopped and an inhumanly wide grin appeared on his face. Seriously, no human would ever feel the need to grin that much. "Also, I've seen what you did back in there… I must say, atta girl."

Ruby went wide-eyed and blushed, looking around, but fortunately no one had heard Phoenix's comment, having returned to focus on Jaune after Phoenix had explained what he had been doing. With a quick glance, she replied. "Thanks."

"Anytime, Lancaster is adorable," grinned the Writer, confusing poor Ruby, before clapping his hands. "Very well, should we start our viewing?"

Slowly, everyone quieted down and sat. Jaune didn't even blink any more when Ruby sat on his lap, just accepting it. After a second, though, she grumbled. "Jaune, can't you take off your armour? It's kinda hard."

 _'It's not the only thing that's hard,'_ grinned Phoenix as the boy awkwardly removed his armour and changed into the outfit Adrian Midnight-Phoenix had gifted him what seemed to have been ages before. It had just been ten or so viewings, actually.

He now wore high white boots with untucked silver-coloured pants. Where Mr Midnight-Phoenix had managed to buy the rest of the clothes, the Watchers had no idea. He wore a light-bluish silver shirt tucked into his pants, and a pristine white belt with a golden buckle even if it wasn't necessary to keep up his trousers. Over the shirt he wore a long Gothic tailcoat white jacket with golden accents, the sleeves snug on his arms and ending much like a shirt at his wrists, closed by a button. His symbol was drawn on the front and the back, as they saw then he pirouetted to show them his outfit like his sisters used to do when shopping with him. But there was something else as well: in the back of the outfit there seemed to be zippers, buttons and straps -they couldn't really tell- that allowed him to wear the jacket without having to stuff his wings underneath it.

Of that, Ruby was really happy as she sat back down, snaked a hand on his back and resumed rubbing between his wings.

Atta girl.

 **It'd been a few months now and Jaune's first semester was wrapping up. He honestly couldn't believe how fast it went and how great it had been. The rumors that used to circulate around had burnt out a long time ago and even Cardin stopped bothering Jaune and Velvet, whether it was out of fear or a serious reality check was unknown to him. But he didn't really care though.**

More than a few snickered while the bully grunted in annoyance. To tell the truth, even Phoenix didn't know the answer.

 **His classes had been going well. He'd been getting high marks in Grimm Studies due to his experience with the creatures of Grimm. Professor Port also didn't call Jaune to show off his skills in class anymore but he did call on him to tell his own experiences he has had with Grimm. He had no problem with that, he could pass on information that could help his fellow students and spare them from the mistakes he had made. He, of course, left out a few details about his Semblance and Nora would add her own input that was either true or an exaggeration. Port never stopped her because if Jaune was his favorite student, although he'd never say that out loud, Nora was a close second. Most of the class enjoyed Jaune's stories but he'd never try to steal the spotlight from Professor Port.**

The snickers died, and the students wailed. "Nooo…" groaned Nora. "Whyyyyyy?"

"Why did he abandon us to the beast Port?!" dramatically cried Ruby, clinging to Jaune even harder and rubbing his back even more. Neither of those actions were out of true despair.

"Nnnngghh… I-I guess he-nnnnggggghhhh… he j-just wanted to allow-nnnngghh… the P-Professor to t-teach his class-nnnnnnnggggggghhhh…"

 **History was still his weakest subject. At one point he thought he was going to fail, until Velvet offered to help tutor him and with her help he improved greatly. He enjoyed his time with Velvet, she was probably his only friend outside his team and RWBY. Although he did have a run in with her team and her leader, Coco, pretty much interrogated him to see if he had any ulterior motives for spending so much time with her teammate. After telling her he would never take advantage of his friends, multiple times, with his usual brand of blunt honesty Coco believed him. But, that didn't stop her from 'chaperoning' their study sessions. Jaune didn't mind though because of that he'd gotten to know all of Team CFVY in some way and considered them his friends. During one of their study sessions, Jaune brought a tray of homemade brownies for them to indulge in. Both girls loved them, Velvet because she loved brownies in general and Coco was shocked to find that Jaune mixed coffee extract in them as well. She was as big of a coffee hound as Jaune, something they bonded over.**

More than a few _blergh_ ed at that, hating coffee themselves, Ruby being the first and foremost, being able to drink coffee only when heavily corrected with cream and sugar. Nora sighed wistfully, wishing she could try it, but Ren had always been adamant about not allowing her anywhere _near_ coffee. Even when she had tried ordering magically, nothing had happened.

Ren had silently thanked the houseowner for that small mercy.

"You know, coffee helps many people all across the world not fall asleep when working," noted Ozpin. "I run on coffee on a daily basis."

"Tea is a much better alternative," noted Blake.

"Not for everyone," countered Phoenix. "You see that world you're all seeing? Well, while documenting that I ran on coffee, so you must thank coffee for having kept me awake all thorough it. Without coffee, you wouldn't be here to watch this."

"And you…" he rounded on six particular students. "You wouldn't have opened up to your own hearts and realized what you had been missing all along. Plus Jaune got his wings back, and new equipment and Semblance. And much more. So you must all thank coffee." No one said anything. "Come on, I'm not hearing it!"

"Holy Cup, we thank you for giving us today the chance to watch the Swordsman kicking ass and realizing our feelings and all around having a great time," everyone droned mechanically.

"Still lacking in enthusiasm, but maybe you'll understand when you'll be older," nodded the Writer, satisfied.

 **He also grew closer to the rest of his friends. Pyrrha eventually got so comfortable with the rest of her team that most would look at JNPR and think they knew each other for years. Although, that comfortability had a hiccup or two. Jaune accidentally walked into the dorm one day to see Pyrrha exiting the bathroom after he shower in only a towel. Which lead to her screaming and using her Semblance to send him out of the room and through RWBY's door into their room. And the other was when Jaune forgot his shirt after his shower and walked out topless and Pyrrha promptly passed out from seeing him like that. The two also sparred two or three times a week on the roof of the dorm to keep each other sharp and to perfect their teamwork. Also, gave Pyrrha the bonus of spending more time with her partner.**

"Pfffffttttt-hahahahahaha!" Most of the Watchers laughed hard at the Swordsman's mistake, although Pyrrha frowned. _'Why did she do that?! She had the chance to be noticed by her crush and she didn't take it!?'_

Jaune would've probably been embarrassed by such an action, but the constant rubbing on his back was just numbing him with a silly smile on his face. Phoenix, noticing this, sighed. "Ruby, please, I'd like Jaune responsive during viewings. Out of those you can pet him as much as you want."

Reluctantly, Ruby retracted her hand, and Jaune blinked as his world of bliss shattered and was replaced with his old one. For a second, he was confused, but then he felt Ruby on his lap and the world made sense again.

 **He was almost as close with RWBY as he was with his own team. Ruby and Jaune spent time together to do homework and just to talk about the stresses they had with being leaders. They would consider themselves to be best friends but neither one had said that out loud yet. Jaune would spoil Ruby by baking her his cookies and Ruby would have Jaune carry her somewhere at least once a day, much to the ire of a few girls. Yang was the next closest person to him after Ruby. She would drag Jaune to the sparring rooms weekly for them to spar. After they agreed to not use their Semblances, they both thoroughly enjoyed it. Jaune was able to improve his hand-to-hand and Yang learned a few of his unique moves. They grew very close; Jaune would laugh at some of her less terrible puns and he got Yang to laugh on occasions. Yang would still tease him but Jaune would quickly throw it back at her. Although, sometimes he wasn't sure if she was kidding or not but decided he was looking into it too much. Weiss also warmed up to him more after the bonding over their scars. She would still try to act professional and cold at times but an amused smirk from Jaune showed her he wasn't buying it. She did somehow find a way to know when he was working on his Exceed Element, which he decided to call Particle, and she'd watch him to make sure he didn't hurt himself. He appreciated it after he realized he couldn't get her to stop. The only person he wished he was closer to was Blake, they talked more and they discussed Ninjas of Love in private once Jaune had finished it. Both were eagerly waiting for the sequel to come out. But, he felt like she was still keeping space from him and maybe hiding something. He never asked her though, she had the right to keep secrets. He still had a few that his friends didn't know, besides Ren and Nora, of course.**

 **He would honestly say that Beacon was perfect right now. If not for the one class that gave him problems, Combat Class. Not to say that Jaune was a bad combatant, in fact with the student's leaderboards that they made themselves, Jaune was ranked third. With Pyrrha holding first and Yang second. Actually, Teams RWBY and JNPR held the top eight spots for the first years. But the two teams knew that if Jaune would stop holding back he'd probably take second place, possibly first. Which was the reason why he had problems, Professor Goodwitch wanted to push Jaune to his full potential but he'd refuse to show his abilities in full. Over their first semester Jaune had used Suikiri in pretty much every fight, Dokiri the one time against Cardin & Kakiri against Yang after she threatened to steal his hoodie if he didn't fight her seriously. Even then he used his Semblance to the bare minimal.**

"Are you seriously _that_ competitive?" asked Jaune. "I mean, he wanted to remain out of the spotlight, why force him to fight at his fullest?"

"Meh, a single fight isn't gonna chance much… not after an entire semester," shrugged the girl. "Besides, it's insulting to fight someone who you _know_ is strong, and getting a watered-down version of a fight."

"Anybody else finds it funny how the Swordsman has to be pushed to fight seriously by Goodwitch, while Arc here is the exact opposite?" asked Neptune, and silence followed as everyone deadpanned at him. "I mean, come on. Arc here is the absolute worst student to have ever attended Beacon, we know that. But does anybody else see the irony?"

Phoenix tilted his head sideways. "Helios… fire."

 **Which brings him to this day in Combat Class, every student had faced every other student in their year besides their partners and today would be that day. The fights between his friends were the most interesting to him so far. Ren and Nora were pretty even until Ren gave up after Nora was about to use her entire payload against him. Blake and Yang were also very even but eventually lead to Yang winning; Blake couldn't deal enough damage to put Yang down and was only making her stronger. Ruby and Weiss had the closest match, it actually ended in a tie due to the fact that the two ran out of dust and bullets and followed with both dropping into the red at the same time. Which now left, "The last match for today will be between Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos."**

 **They were about to head down when Jaune stopped Pyrrha, "Wanna make this interesting?" he said with a smirk.**

 **She raised an eyebrow at that, "How?"**

 **"How about neither of us use our Semblance and see who is the best fighter?"**

"That's basically ensuring Pyrrha doesn't win by default," noted Yang.

"It's not my fault if my Semblance is basically the perfect counteraction against Huntsmen…" mumbled Pyrrha, slumping slightly.

"Hey, cheer up, it's not like it's really like that." Phoenix waved at the others' weapons. "You _think_ it's like that. But you know what? Most weapons are _not_ made from magnetic metals. Plus Dust is not magnetic, so enhancing weapons with Dust does not make them automatically magnetic. Result, you can't actually control all weapons."

"Really?" asked Weiss.

"Well, for example she can't control Ruby's scythe perfectly. Crescent Rose is made of a special Magnesium alloy, as light as Aluminium and as strong as some Titanium alloy, to make it both light and resistant, and Magnesium is only paramagnetic, not completely magnetic," explained Phoenix, pointing at the scythe. "Jaune's Crocea Mors was steel and silver alloy. I know, steel is already an alloy. Silver is not magnetic. I'm not too sure about the others, though."

"Wait, your scythe is Magnesium?" asked Jaune.

"Well… it was light," shrugged the reaper.

 **Pyrrha thought for a second, "Alright. But if I win, you have to do something for me." She said with a blush.**

"Pyrrha!" exclaimed Nora. "No naughty thoughts!"

Pyrrha sputtered, embarrassed, and even Jaune coughed and looked away. Ruby frowned and sneaked a quick rub at Jaune's back. Suddenly, embarrassment was the last thing on his mind.

"Ruby…"

"Sorry!"

 **"You're on!" Jaune said with a smile as the two made it into the arena and took their places. Pyrrha had Milo drawn in its xiphos form with Akouo ready. Jaune got into his stance and drew Raikiri in reflex. They both stood there until Goodwitch called the fight and both charged at each other. The two met in the middle and their swords clashed together so quickly, people only saw sparks and blurs. Until Pyrrha brought Akouo up to stop Jaune's sword but before she could capitalize Jaune kicked off her shield to create distance. Pyrrha followed after him to not allow him the reprieve. When he landed he quickly spun clockwise and when his back was to Pyrrha he swapped Raikiri to his left hand.**

 **Pyrrha assumed that Jaune was spinning to add more force into his swing and brought Akouo to take the impact. She didn't expect him to grab it with his right hand and use his momentum to spin her so her back would now be the target of the swing from his left hand. She was quick enough to bring Milo to lay across he back and stopped the hit. She than continued to spin until her shield came around to hit Jaune in the head, luckily he rolled backwards out of the way. The two stood and analyzed each other for a second and charged again.**

"Wow, that's real skill," noted Neptune, covered with more ashes now. "Unfortunately Arc has no such skill…"

"To tell the truth, that is kinda stupid to do," said Ozpin, sipping his coffee. "While such agility and speed is indeed impressive, it's also highly unnecessary. Turning your back on your opponent just to hide a movement is an extremely risky move, one that more often than not ends poorly. Furthermore, exhausting yourself fighting like that is not gonna work if you have to face a horde of Grimm. Each Grimm does not need much acrobatics to kill, but if you tire yourself out, they _will_ overrun you."

"But we do our best like that…" said Weiss.

"Ms Schnee, let me give you an example," Goodwitch took over. "If you know that you only need a gun to kill a Beowolf, why use a grenade? It's over the top. You are all glass cannons for short bursts of power. Extremely destructive on short periods, but with low defence and low stamina. Even Ms Xiao Long, the most resistant fighter of your year, is still far from long-lasting."

"I think I got it!" exclaimed Sun. "It's like in a videogame! Why use the super uber strong weapon you can only use for a limited time each day to kill Creeps? Take it easy, those die even if you look at them! Why should you deal five hundreds damage per attack for only a minute, when you can deal ten damage per attack per fifty minutes, and still kill each opponent in a single hit? It's better use the second, you last longer and kill more opponents!"

Everyone blinked, but Jaune nodded. "Yeah, that's true… hey, Sun, have you ever played Remnant Aflame?"

Sun gaped. "You too?! Man this is awesome! Nep never wants to play since he always loses! You're _so_ gonna be my game buddy!" he exclaimed. "Best weapon of chapter 1: katana/automatic rifle with freaking explosive rounds!"

"Halberd of instant kill," gloated Jaune. "Although you have to search the secret rooms to find that."

Sun fell to his knees with tears in his eyes. "Please, teach me your playing methods…"

Everyone else rolled their eyes at them, some jokingly, some not.

 **Pyrrha was taken aback, she thought she'd have a slight advantage with Jaune using his left hand but he was nearly as good as he was using his right. Plus, now she couldn't use Akouo to stop attacks from his sword due to them coming from her right side. Pyrrha decided to switch Milo into its javelin form to give her an edge. Jaune however kept switching between his two hands to keep her guessing. Until Jaune feinted a slash before dropping and sweeping her legs and as she was falling to the ground, he was rising to deal an overhead slash with his sword back in his right hand. She was able to bring her shield up again but the force from the force behind the attack caused her aura to take a hit as she hit the ground.**

 **She quickly pushed off the ground and rammed Jaune with her shield. As he was sliding back, Dokiri's and Suikiri's sheathes rotated to his left shoulder before he drew Suikiri with his left hand. The two charged at each other and were holding nothing back. Until Jaune crossed his swords and brought both down into a downward slash onto Akouo. Pyrrha pushed back when Jaune was off balance which sent him reeling back and before he could do anything she kicked him away. As he was flying back, he threw Suikiri at Pyrrha which missed her by a hair when she sidestepped it before she responded by throwing Akouo at him. Although by then Jaune had landed on his feet and had Dokiri drawn now to replace Suikiri. He crossed his swords and angled his swords to rebound it away from him and Pyrrha. As soon as he did that he charged and Pyrrha was right there with him with her javelin.**

" _That_ , instead, is useful skill," lectured Goodwitch. "Being able to respond to attacks and think on the fly. A warrior is not an acrobat, even if they can perform such actions. A warrior is some whose mind is made to fight. Exploiting weaknesses, quick actions, sharp mind, combat reflexes and creative techniques. Remember, you will be fighting, not brawling. A brawl may be won just through physical means, but a fight is something going on in the mind just as much as in the body."

"And now you notice Jaune was actually much better than most students at fighting," Yang mumbled under her breath, careful not to be heard by anyone. Phoenix choked out a laugh, _obviously_ having heard her, but he didn't betray her little secret.

"Indeed," nodded the Writer. "While a good physique helps in a fight, a stupid fighter is a dead fighter." The last line was said while looking at Cardin…

 **The two kept trading blows until Pyrrha managed to knock Raikiri out of Jaune's hand but Jaune kicked her away and jumped back towards Suikiri, that was still in the ground. Pyrrha rolled out of the kick and now had Milo in rifle form and open fired at Jaune. Jaune was able to pull Suikiri free with his right hand and used his two swords in tandem to deflect most of the bullets, although a few got through. As soon as Pyrrha had to reload Jaune took the opportunity to use his aura to jump high into the air and come down with both his blades Pyrrha rolled out of the way and ran towards Akouo. Jaune landed next to Raikiri so he threw Suikiri one last time before kicking Raikiri up into the air and catching it in a reverse grip before shooting after her with his aura.**

 **Suikiri glanced Pyrrha's shoulder before it embedded itself into the ground again. She quickly picked up her shield before spinning and meeting one last time. The two were fighting in a blur; Pyrrha switching Milo often between its xiphos and javelin form and Jaune switching from his reverse grip to his standard way of holding his sword. Eventually the two got locked in a power struggle until both of them jumped back. Pyrrha quickly threw Akouo and it caught the cross guards of his swords as he crossed them to block it. This caused them to fly from his hand and for the shield to come back to Pyrrha, who was charging him one last time as she caught Akouo. Jaune recovered to draw Kakiri with his left hand, after its sheathe rotated to connect with the other two over his left shoulder, and Fukiri with his right before charging. Pyrrha lead with her shield and Jaune intercepted it by using Fukiri in a reverse grip with the blade laying directly on his forearm and moving both out of the way. Next thing both fighters knew, they were holding their blade at their partner's throat with the other doing the same. Both were breathing deeply until Jaune smiled, "So, draw?"**

"That was fucking MYTHIC!" exclaimed Cardin, shovelling a handful of popcorns into his mouth and chewing. "So much action… so much fight… NOW WE'RE TALKING ACTION!"

Phoenix chuckled. "It's impressive how you can go from douchebag to fan in a second," he commented. "Also kinda amusing."

"I'm a person, not some fucking one-dimensional fucker." Another handful of popcorn disappeared into his mouth. "Besides, action is action. I would've booed at a romance scene, but action is untouchable."

"As much as it sickens me, I have to agree with Winchester," nodded Weiss. "That was indeed a good fight."

 **Pyrrha smiled and nodded, "Draw." They both put their weapons away before they reclaimed Jaune's other three swords. As they were doing that the whole classroom exploded in cheers and whistles. Apparently, they all loved the fight. Jaune flushed slightly at the attention before Goodwitch got their attention.**

 **"I have to agree. That was by far one of the best fights I've seen from any first years. You two should be proud." She gave them a small smile. Both smiled and thanked her, with that the class was dismissed. They met up with their friends and they were all excited after seeing that fight.**

 **Nora quickly pulled Jaune into a tight hug, "Nice job, Fearless Leader! We haven't seen you fight like that in forever!" Jaune just chuckled and returned the hug.**

 **"That was a great fight. It really put me in the mood." Yang said with a grin.**

 **Jaune just sighed, "Yang, I'm exhausted. I don't really want to fight again."**

 **"Who said anything about fighting." She replied with a wink and Jaune immediately blushed before Pyrrha came in to safe him.**

"Yang!"

"Hey, come on, it wasn't even _me_ , but other-me!"

"Somehow, I doubt you would've reacted much differently," snorted Phoenix.

 **"That was very impressive, Jaune. But your sword fighting was more skilled than I usually see, why?"**

 **"That's why I didn't want us to use our Semblance. When I use my Semblance, I focus more on controlling the element and less on my swordplay. But when I don't have to worry about that, my swordsmanship goes back up to where it should be."**

 **"How'd you learn to use your left hand as well as your right?" Weiss asked.**

"He'll probably say he's ambidextrous," noted Jaune. "I am, so I guess he is too."

"Wait, you are ambidextrous?" asked Weiss.

"Eeehhhh yeah," Jaune nodded absent-mindedly. "I'm pretty much ambidextrous. Born with it. But after, everyone here is, right?"

"Well… kind of…" Yang looked at the others. "We had to _train_ to become ambidextrous, and we still have a preferred hand."

"You do?" Jaune blinked. "But you swap hands on your weapons all the time…"

"Yes, but that's to keep the adversary guessing, and we almost never really attack with our secondary hand." Yang pointed at Weiss. "Have you ever seen Weiss-Cream here using her right hand in a fight?"

Jaune scratched the back of his head. "Eeeh… no?"

"Exactly."

 **"Oh, back when I started training with a sword my teacher had me use a shield, as well. Don't know why considering she never used one. Anyways, it became apparent that I had no aptitude to use a shield and we focused on just my swordsmanship. She actually called in a friend of her's to teach me ambidextrous sword fighting and with that my dual wielding was improved greatly. And when my fighting style was perfected she gave me my rerebrace to boost my defense on my left side."**

 **"Hmm, who was this friend though?" Blake added.**

 **"Oh, Qrow Branwen." This caused Yang and Ruby to stop. "What?"**

"What?"

"What?!"

Burp. "What?"

 **"Qrow Branwen?" Yang asked. "Drinks a lot and uses a sword that turns into a scythe?"**

 **Jaune nodded, "Yup. You know him?"**

 **"That is our Uncle!" Ruby shouted. Everyone starred in disbelief.**

 **"Wait a minute. You two are the nieces he told me about." He scratched his chin and thought for a second, "That actually makes sense." He chuckled.**

 **Ruby quickly jumped onto Jaune and hugged him, "This is awesome! Uncle Qrow taught me everything and he taught you too! That makes us sibling students!" She cheered.**

 **Than Nora pulled Ruby off and pulled her into a bear hug, "This is great! Now that means I have a little sister!" Nora cheered as Ruby tried to break free from Nora's hug.**

 **Jaune just laughed until Yang wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. "Looks like you've stolen my sister's heart, Hero."**

"W-What?!"

 **Everyone turned to the two blondes and Jaune was just staring at Yang wide eyed, "What?"**

 **"Well, you help her with everything from homework to leader duties, you bake her great cookies, you carry her around everywhere and now you have the same teacher. You are perfect for each other." She gave them a teasing grin.**

Jaune started to make clicking noises.

Ruby began to imitate Jaune almost immediately.

Phoenix sighed. "I thought that after everything, they'd have taken it a little better. No matter, I have the solution." He walked up to Ruby and leaned in. "Ruby~ you can rub Jaune's back now~"

Instantly, the reaper shot out of her daze and both her hands flew on Jaune's back, and…

" _Nnnnnnngggggghhhh…_ "

Phoenix laughed.

 **"I don't love Jaune!" Everyone turned to see Ruby finally out of Nora's hug, blushing and staring at Yang. "I keep telling you, Yang, he's not my boyfriend! He's my best friend!"**

 **She quickly looked down after that. So she didn't notice Jaune walk over to her until he pulled her into a hug. Jaune started stroking the top of her head gently, "Thank you, Ruby. That means a lot." He leaned down and whispered, "I'd say you're my best friend too but with Nora around that wouldn't be smart." He smiled and Ruby returned both the hug and smile.**

 **"Alright, enough of this." Weiss interjected. "Let's go get something to eat before everything is gone." Everyone agreed and started making their way to the cafeteria, except Ruby who was on Jaune's back again. She was smiling as she buried her head into his shoulder. 'He's my best friend. But is it bad that I hope we'll be more down the line?' she thought to herself.**

Both teens had mild blushes, but Ruby was a bit too engrossed petting Jaune and Jaune was a bit too engrossed enjoying the petting to really care. Besides, both already knew of Ruby's crush on the knight.

Everyone knew of that.

Even the ones who never read this story knew of that.

Ehm-ehm, let's move onto something else.

Phoenix stood up and dusted himself off. Not like he actually had dust on himself because that would be like saying the houseowner doesn't keep his fortress clean, and that's not true. The houseowner only kept his room a mess.

Anyway, Phoenix stood up and dusted himself off. There was something he needed to say. And that was… "Girls, I know you're all so eager to grope Jaune but could I borrow him for a while?" Five girls blushed at that and they released Jaune. Not all the five were certain of their feelings but… well, being a teenager often meant they didn't really take teasing with nonchalance. "I wanted to ask you, Jaune…"

"Y-Yes?" Jaune was already preparing himself. Was it payback for having had Nora pile-hug him?

"Would you like to spar with me?" Jaune blanched. Yes. Yes, it definitely was payback for that. Oum, please take his poor soul into your realm once Phoenix is done. "I mean, you've already sparred with all your friends. You aren't at their level but you know how the saying goes… `To get stronger, you need to fight who's stronger`. So… since I doubt there is _anything_ in this room that's stronger than me… wanna spar a little?"

Jaune squeaked a yes, but inwardly he was praying to Oum.

 ** _Poor Jaune. Phoenix wouldn't do that... maybe._**

 ** _He IS still a little sore about the hug thing..._**

 ** _Anyway, I hope you liked. Don't worry, Jaune will survive and we'll see him in the next chapter._**

 ** _And here are the links to some images for Jaune's armour and weapons. (the weapon is called Sol Invictus. The armour is called Lucet Aurora)_**

 ** _ht tps: (slash slash) www (d0t) deviant art (d0t) com (slash) khorevis (slash) art (slash) Sol-Invictus-762057778  
_** _ **ht tps: (slash slash) www (d0t) deviant art (d0t) com (slash) khorevis (slash) art (slash)**_ ** _Jaune-s-Halberd-Transforming-762059046ht tps: (slash slash) www (d0t) deviant art (d0t) com (slash) khorevis (slash) art (slash) ViewingTES-Jaune-Soleil-Arc-768755472_** _ **ht tps: (slash slash) www (d0t) deviant art (d0t) com (slash) khorevis (slash) art (slash) ViewingTES-Jaune-Soleil-Arc-768756279**_

 _ **Remove the spaces, replace the parenthesis, as usual FFN is being a dick to all of us... and take a look at the drawings. I'm shit if compared to real artists but hey, I write... I don't draw. ;)**_

 ** _Until next ti-WAIT A DAMN SECOND!_**

 ** _I almost forgot! For a chapter so full of fluff... we need an Omake about death, don't we? ;) Here you go!_**

UNDER THE SHADOW OF DEATH

The Watchers were calmly relaxing in their hall. Well, not exactly _calmly_ , but close enough. Phoenix had gone to take care of some business of his, mentioning something like "ghoul" or the likes. No one had really been worried.

They began to get worried when the door opened again, and someone or some _thing_ that definitely wasn't Phoenix stepped through.

At a first glance, the newcomer appeared to be just a misty black shadow with glowing red eyes. More than one of them instinctively reached for their weapons, but the shadow wasn't fazed by that. The door closed behind it and it stepped forwards, allowing them to see it a bit more clearly. They could vaguely see red veins coursing through his body, but what they really noticed was the smoke. Not unlike a dying Grimm, the shadow's body was smoking slightly, but the black mist seemed to whirl in place instead of floating up, as if held there by some unseen force. The other important detail was its mask. The shadow wore a mask whose white colour looked so old to appear grey.

When the shadow spoke, everyone flinched. Its voice was hollow and slightly echoed, as if coming from an ancient and dark tomb. "Greetings, children of Life. My name is the Harbinger, the Herald of Death. Fear not, as I have not come to take your souls to the realm beyond reality." No one relaxed. "I have come to bring you all a message. It will be up to you to discover its true meaning."

The Harbinger slithered closer as an unnatural cold seeped into their bones. "All I see in you is Life. Pure, untouched, uncorrupted Life. The Knight of Arc knows of Death. The Queen of Roses knows of Death. The Hammer of Thunder knows of Death. The Silent Wind knows of Death. They have seen it. They have feared it. They have accepted it." No one could mistake what it meant. "None of you have ever been touched by Death. This led you to avoid the thoughts of Death. This, is a mistake I have been tasked to rectify."

The shadow had, by then, walked through the entire room. It turned around and looked at them with its dead red eyes. "Death comes for everyone. It does not matter how much time it'll be needed, but all souls eventually embrace Death." Ozpin felt a shiver run down his spine. "Avoiding the thoughts of Death will not bring you happiness, children of Life. It will bring you ruin. Allow the words of the Chant of Death to reach you, and find what your soul already knows..."

"Death comes for us all, Death comes for us  
The Grim Reaper rises, here to take us home  
Home where the flowers grow, Home where the hills lie  
A place to rest forever more  
Never to rise again, onto our graves we fall."

"This is the Chant of Death. Confront your inner self, and find the enlightenment of the answer." The shadow began once more to walk through their group, no footsteps being heard. "Life won't last forever. Eternity is a concept only Death can truly grasp. Even the Gods of Remnant will one day fall and be no more. Never take Life for granted, or ruin shall befall you. Happiness flees and darkness rises, if you choose to look away from the shadow of Death. Looking straight at the light, in the end... will blind you."

By then, the shadow had reached the door once again. "My duty has been fulfilled. My message has reached its destination. The children of Life shall choose their Path, or they shall forever fall in the Abyss of Nothingness." The door opened and the shadow silently stepped out. "Look at Life and rejoice every bit of it because one day, all this will be ashes in the wind. The Herald of Death has spoken. Now, may silence reign."

The door closed.

 _ **...**_

 _ **Okay, to be honest, that came out far darker and more serious than I thought. Keep in mind I write my Omakes on the fly, so I just wrote this all. This Omake is here today thanks to Apex of Failure (him again, yes. ;) He told me his poem and I built an Omake around it)**_

 _ **I really hope you enjoyed it. Right now, here it's 1:05 AM, so I'm absolutely off to sleep now.**_

 _ **Until next time,**_

 _ **Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh**_


	19. Chapter 18

**_Okay, this's gonna be a feeling rollercoaster. Starts light... and then goes DOWN! Better AN at the end, plus here it's 1 AM so I could be typing this while already asleep._**

The door opened.

Jaune stumbled inside, looking much worse for wear. Worst for wear, even. His hair was a mess, he had shakes wrecking his body continuously and his eyes held a haunted look. His clothes seemed to be fine, if a little tousled up. His weapons and armour had been removed earlier, right after the training. He was deaf to the girls' shouts of worry and he merely staggered over to his couch, collapsing on it face-first, unresponsive to the world.

Phoenix walked in whistling, and everyone turned to him.

He was perfectly fine. His hoodie was merely thrown over his shoulder. Not a single hair out of place, not a single beat of sweat, not a single sign of fatigue. In fact, he was grinning cheerfully. "Come on, that was nothing," he chuckled when Jaune couldn't even muster the energy to groan. "Here, take a heal."

"Take a what?" Weiss asked, confused, but Phoenix merely flicked his wrist toward Jaune, green and blue flames engulfing the boy. After a second, the fire went away and Jaune straightened a little, although his hair were still a mess.

"Phoenix, remember me never to make you mad," he commented. Seeing his hair condition, Yang huffed and ordered a brush from the houseowner before sitting down beside him and starting to brush his hair back into some semblance of order.

After she was done, she threw the brush aside and sneakily hugged his arm. Nobody knew how could she have `sneakily` done something like that, but Yang Xiao Long didn't obey the laws of Physics and Logic. Pressing his arm into her sizeable chest, she laid her head on his shoulder with a content little smile, much to Jaune's embarrassment. He didn't mind, sure, but… it wasn't like they were alone. Pyrrha, not wanting to be outperformed, grabbed his other arm and did the same, although her cheeks were even brighter than Jaune's, perfectly matching her hair.

Ironwood was about to remind them that PDAs were forbidden in all Hunter Academies, but then remembered they were nowhere near a Hunter Academy.

For a second, everything was quiet. Then…

"Phoenix, can I ask you something?" Ruby inquired curiously, adorably pulling at the Writer's sleeve.

It is said that Writers are omnipotents in all worlds not their owns. That is completely untrue. Not even Writers can resist adorableness. Phoenix inwardly wailed at her cuteness and cleared his throat. "Well, you just did… no, that was so cliché, ask right away, Ruby." He glanced at Jaune, who was still being kept by Yang and Pyrrha. "I was about to call you by your new nickname, but I guess that's exclusive for Jaune only, right?"

Ruby blushed and fidgeted a little before shaking her head. No! Behaving like a little child embarrassed by anything would only make Jaune see her as a little sister instead of a g-girlfriend! She had to grow up! Right away! Mature Ruby Rose, here she came! "Well, earlier, you mentioned something called `Lancaster`… what is that?"

If you had to guess by Phoenix's look, his birthday had just come. He was ecstatic.

"Well, you see, Ruby… Lancaster is a ship. But not a normal ship. In this case, `ship` is short for `relationship`, so romantic interest or connection between two… or more… people," he explained fatherly, patting her head. "If I could have you all's attention, please, I'm about to explain what is Lancaster as well as Arkos, WhiteKnight, DragonSlayer and Knightshade… yes, Knightshade is with starting `k`."

"Lancaster, Ruby, is a ship name." Despite his earlier little explanation, everyone still looked a bit confused. "When we view a universe, and by `we` I mean us Writers and others with similar abilities, we like to pair up people who we think would make good couples. Those are ships." Ozpin chuckled, now having a name for his favourite hobby, and Phoenix smirked. "And, personally, I'm a fan of `ships` that involve our resident knight here. But only when they make sense: I would never `ship` two people just for the sake of shipping." He chuckled a little and turned to Ruby. "`Lancaster` is the ship name for when you and Jaune end up together, and it's probably my favourite at this point. In case you're wondering, it's also the houseowner's favourite. Like… absolute favourite. A lot of us like it because we see you two as the most `adorkable` couple out there. Add to that the fact you share the same dream and the drive to help and protect people, and you'll find out you two have a lot in common." Ignoring Jaune's and Ruby's blushes, he turned to Pyrrha, who seemed a little scorned.

"My close second is Arkos, which is when _you_ end up with him, Pyrrha. Your ship was really popular among Us but… er…" He coughed and looked away for a second. "Let's just say that _things_ happened. I personally like it because it's just so romantic… the partner that is always supporting him and sees his potential, and eventually becomes the one he loves beyond all else. Romantic, no?" He chuckled at their blushes. "This was also Khor's favourite ship until… things happened… a while ago."

He scratched his chin, heedless of the three's blushes. "After that, my next favourite is probably WhiteKnight." He winked at Weiss, who got the message and promptly blushed at the thought of being with Jaune. "That usually only happens when the Heiress here removes that royal stick from up her rear, though." The comment earned quite a few snickers from the students, and Weiss's blush gained a tint of shame as well. "I like this `ship` because Jaune usually allows the Ice Queen to lower her walls. His genuine care and love are honestly the things you need most to be the `real you`, and no the prime and proper statue your father wants you to be."

"Moving on, I also enjoy Knightshade and DragonSlayer. Although they are less common among the documented universes of the Multiverse for some reason." He shrugged slightly, shelving the thought for the time being, and turned to Blake, who had blood leaking from her nose. As opposite to his previous doubt, Phoenix knew perfectly well the reason for said bleeding. "Knightshade is when Blake winds up with him. Honestly, the fact that Jaune doesn't see Faunus and Humans as two different species and his will to protect what he cares for usually draw you in. And that's without speaking of the universes where Jaune is a Faunus himself. I guess opposites attract in this case. But hey, love is blind, isn't it?" He glanced at the blushing group. "Well, I like to think that love might be blind, but it ain't dumb. What I was talking about? Oh, yes, opposites. His `light` brightens up your entire life and your `darkness` allows him to mature in so many ways… you complete each other and make you more than you could ever be separated."

He finally turned to Yang, who had been quite impatient to get her turn in. "Last but not least, DragonSlayer is when you fall for Jaune. It makes sense: both of your care for your family so much, especially your sisters, and you would both brutally murder whoever hurt the ones you care about. And I'm not completely joking, despite your bright personalities you two would be ready to do extreme actions to protect those you care about. Plus there's the fact he sees you for you, and not just as someone to `have a good time with`, and that really helps, don't you think? He sees the damaged soul underneath that brave face you put up… and promptly fetches the first aid kid."

His last comment got a few to grin, but Yang seemed too lost in her blush to care. She should've known not to be eager and tempt fate. Now her embarrassment was only matched by Jaune's, Ruby's, Blake's, Pyrrha's and Weiss's.

"Truth to be told, when any of you ends up with Jaune here, he helps and heals you all in ways you didn't even know where possible, and you help him become who he was meant to be… or who he chose to be. Honestly, I don't really believe in Destiny. We forge our own Destiny." He smirked mischievously as he winked at them all. "Really makes you think what would you become if _all_ of you were to be with him, huh?" He chuckled again, the smirk never leaving his face. "That ship is a little more difficult to name as different Writers use different names. Some even call it `LuckyBastard`…" A few grumbles told him that there were more than a Watcher agreeing with the name. "But since we are being housed by my friend Khor, I'd use his own way of calling it… _RainbowKnight_."

"Why Rainbow Knight?" asked Sun.

Phoenix shrugged and gestured to the students. "Colour themes. I know they're not of the colour of the rainbow, but hey, Lancaster is literally a reference to a historical event from my home world, completely unrelated to Remnant, so who cares?"

After Phoenix's explanation, everyone was either snickering at the six's faces or -in the six's case- blushing as red as possible. Although it wasn't the only thing red on their faces as they weren't devoid of nosebleeds. Even Ozpin had red tinting his cheeks, but mainly from reigning in his laughter.

Neptune and Cardin were _not_ as merry, though. "And what about me?" Neptune asked. "Are there any `ship` for me?"

Phoenix sighed and shook his head. "Neptune, I already told you, everything that's possible has happened in the Multiverse," he reminded him. "But your ships… they're just not possible. I'm sorry." He said it with such remorse one could almost be fooled. Almost. It was clear Phoenix was holding in a grin.

"Very funny," grumbled the boy.

"If you really want to know, you and Weiss would be… I think Iceberg," sighed the Writer. "I can't tell others off the top of my head but yes, unfortunately there are also ships for you."

"Like?" Neptune inquired further.

"I just told you I don't know, but let's just say that _every ship_ you can think of is possible." He thought about it for a second. "Even narcissist ships, so with one's self. And unfortunately also the so-called `rape ships` or `non-consensual ships` exist. Although if you try to do something like that, the wrath of more than a Writer will befall you," he added with a fierce glare.

To be honest, none of the two boys would've done that. They were jerks but they weren't rapists, nor they wanted to be. The fact they were scared shitless by Phoenix's glare wasn't related to ill intentions on their part, but merely on survival instinct.

"Now, on a completely different topic… I have a little game for you girls, okay? Bear with me for a second." Phoenix pondered turning everyone into bears just to make a pun, but then he reminded himself he wasn't Yang… who despite her blush still had her head on Jaune's shoulder. "I've noticed how poor Jaune has been swarmed by `fans` these last viewings…" The girls tried to blush harder, they really tried, but unfortunately there was a limit to how much one could blush. "So I decided to give Jaune a viewing with only one girl. The others can sit in nearby couches but only one can actually sit with him."

No one could misunderstand a couple of unhappy grumbles.

"Don't worry, you'll be able to swarm Jaune once again in the next viewing. It's just to give him a breather. As for who will sit with him -Ruby, please stop shouting because I'm not gonna choose myself- I've come up with a little game." Phoenix drew a rainbow-coloured scarf from his jeans pocket. Magic, obviously. He walked up to Jaune and tied it around his right arm, making sure that it wasn't loose. "Now, I will give Jaune here thirty seconds to run, then I'll release the ladies." He chuckled at their faces. They were priceless in their supreme embarrassment. "Whoever gets the scarf wins and sits with Jaune for the entire viewing. You won't be allowed to use weapons, Dust or Semblances, though, or you could get the upper hand on the others."

Embarrassment disappeared from their faces, replaced with steely determination. The Watchers could swear they saw sparks going off as their gazes met. It would be a fight to the death, and no one of them would back down.

Goodwitch sighed as she looked at Phoenix. "Mr Phoenix, why would you do something as cruel as that to poor Mr Arc? I thought you already had your revenge for Ms Valkyrie's hug…"

"Oh, this isn't for a petty revenge. Training too wasn't for revenge… mainly. Holding a grudge for something so small is just petty, I'm better than that… and why do I feel like I'm repeating myself? Oh well, no matter, I probably did." Phoenix summoned a mug of coffee and took a sip before shrugging. "Besides, it'll be good for him. You know, stamina and all of that. Plus on-the-fly thinking and manoeuvrability. And, if I have to be honest, we all know it will also be hilarious to watch."

Everyone in the room deadpanned at him, except for Ozpin who finally let out a chuckle and held out his mug. "You are a cruel man, Phoenix." The Writer replied with a smirk, and clinked his mug against Ozpin's in a mock toast.

"Always." Phoenix brought his mug to his lips once again and took a long sip. "Aah… so good. Jaune, you have thirty seconds to run, starting from… right now."

Jaune seemed to vaporize from the couch, almost leaving an after-image. Unfortunately, the girls had perfectly seen him bolting out of the room and into the depths of Vlakha Naroak. Thirty seconds later, they too left the room while Phoenix merely laughed and flicked his wrist at the screen, that started up and began to show the five girls running after the boy, quickly gaining ground.

With Jaune, he finally reached his destination, the girls not too far behind him. Damn they were fast… Luckily no Semblance had been allowed, or he would've been doomed. Between Ruby's sheer speed, Pyrrha's ability to pull him down by his _belt_ , and Weiss's Glyphs, he would've had no chances of surviving them. Instead, he had finally gotten to the arena.

He barely took three steps before he flapped his wings and took off the ground. Just in time, as Yang's hand clawed at where he had been a second before shortly after. He quickly flew to the middle of the room and fearfully looked down at the five girls. He couldn't just choose one, or he'd break someone else's heart. Also, they looked at bit too _predatory_ for his liking. Even Weiss and Blake, who _weren't_ supposed to have feelings for him, were looking at him like that. Blake, he could understand. She was a cat and he was a bird, although swans were _not_ on the menu for cats. But Weiss? Why the hell was she licking her lips?!

But then it happened.

They used their secret weapons. They used what Ruby had taught them.

The pleading look.

 _'No… no… noooo… noooo!'_ Jaune inwardly despaired. He couldn't look down. He couldn't look at those girls. They'd force him out of the sky just out of adorableness. Damn, Ruby was the best but the others weren't far behind! Who would've thought Yang of all people would've been able to look so cute and hurt?! _'No, I need something to make it stop… argh, it's getting at me already. I mustn't look… I-'_

"J-Jaune?"

"Jaune, please…"

"Come down, please…"

 _'No… not the stuttering, please! Anything but the stuttering…'_ He dared to glance down and immediately regretted it. Pyrrha and Weiss were reaching out for him, and Ruby… no… no… Ruby seemed close to…

 _Sniffle_.

…tears… No, no, no no no nononono! Jaune's eyes widened in horror as tears kept coming. Even Blake seemed to have moist eyes. No… he felt his armour of willpower crack. No… he had used that to resist his seven sisters, it couldn't abandon him like that! He… another sniffle, followed by a soft sob, expanded the crack, threatening to destroy it entirely. He had to find a way… He wouldn't be able to survive otherwise.

He dived and began to pick up speed as he flew in circles. The girls, not sure about what he was doing, stopped sniffling for a second and looked at him. After a few seconds, he was ready. There was a way of stopping the onslaught. It wasn't the best but it was the only one he had. It would probably hurt like hell, but since it had been Phoenix to force that little game on him, the Writer would also have to take care of the consequences of his own actions. The only way for him to resist was…

 _ **BOOM…**_

…to knock himself unconscious.

 _ **CRASH**_.

The five girls were upon him immediately, checking over him and sighing in relief as they realized he was fine. Unconscious but fine. Relatively. Nothing Phoenix couldn't heal with a little fire. Then their eyes travelled to his right arm. They exchanged a glance, and lunged.

Five minutes later, Phoenix had to be the one separating them.

They all stood up, glaring daggers at each other, and Blake even hissed a little. Then they looked down at their hands, each of them holding a piece of the scarf. Their eyes went up again, looking at Phoenix with coloured question marks on their heads.

Phoenix merely laughed and pointed at Weiss. "She's ripped off the largest piece, so she wins," he stated before conjuring some green and blue fire. He would've used just green, but he had the inkling Jaune had given himself a concussion, so some blue might've been needed.

Weiss smugly grinned at the others all the way back to the Watching Hall.

Everyone sat down on their own couches, except for Weiss who, now much less smug and confident, shyly sat down beside Jaune. Everyone heard Ruby's comment about `wasting her opportunity`. After a second, she leaned ever so slightly against him, not sure how the action would've been taken by the boy.

Surprisingly well was her answer. He just blushed bright red.

 **The day was pretty much over, classes were done and everyone was excited to begin the weekend. Weiss had the idea to go down to Vale to see the progress of all the work going into the Vytal Festival. Everyone agreed and all of them were on an airship heading to Vale. While everyone was talking though, Jaune was off to the side using his aura to calm down his motion sickness. It wasn't as bad as last time and maybe eventually he'd get used to flying but today wasn't then. As they were walking around taking in the sights of the beginnings of the Vytal Festival, everyone could tell Weiss was in a good mood.**

 **"The Vytal Festival, this is absolutely wonderful!" Weiss said happily.**

 **"I don't think I've seen you this happy before, Snow Angel." Jaune said with a small smile.**

"I wonder how can she stand hearing that nickname over and over again," scoffed Neptune.

"You used that very same nickname. I was more accepting only because I had lived with my team for a while then. And I… I had gotten a bad impression of Jaune, which stuck for a while…" Weiss rubbed her arm at that. "As for why I disliked the nickname… I had an instructor, quite a while ago. He was around the same age as me but way more talented, so my father had agreed to allow him to train me for two weeks. He called me `Snow Angel` because in a fight I was as slow and fragile as snow, and reluctant to `fight mean`, as he called it, like an angel. He constantly used it as an insult and it angered me. I learned so much from him but I never got over the fact that I was a `snow angel`, a fragile and unresourceful fighter. Being called that right after entering Beacon… it made me doubt my own talent. It was like he was there again, with that damn raised eyebrow of his and crossed arms, telling me what I had done wrong. He taught me, comforted me and was even kind of a friend… but even after he left, he still left me the idea I would never grow out of that nickname."

Jaune embraced her with just an arm. "But you have. You have grown out of it and into it again."

Weiss frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, looking angrily down at the floor. "That what he said was true? That I-"

"To quote a very wise person, _nope_." Jaune winked at Ruby with that, who blushed slightly. "You're not fragile nor unresourceful. Heck, you're probably the most resourceful one out of all of us! And you're not fragile, despite having a little less Aura than most and not having a great defence." Weiss wilted at his words. "But you're not a snow angel because you're fragile. You are a snow angel because even in a fight, you're as calm as the snow, and I've been told frostbite hurts." He smiled as she smiled despite her mood. "Plus you are beautiful in an angelic way. And, despite what your trainer thought, I'm pretty sure angels can fight pretty well."

Weiss actually chuckled at that, and she wasn't the only one. "Thank you, Jaune."

"Eh," he waved if off in a very Jaune-like fashion. "It was nothing."

 **She turned to him, "How could anyone not be happy? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances, parades, a tournament! The amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!"**

 **"And now you ruined the fun." Yang sighed and Jaune chuckled slightly.**

 **"Quiet, both of you." Weiss said slightly annoyed.**

 **"The festival sounds great, I'm just worried about the tournament. I've barely kept my Semblance under wraps in class." He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair, "How am I gonna hide it fighting equally and even more experienced teams?"**

 **Everyone looked at him then at each other before Yang spoke up. "You know, you could stop hiding your abilities and finally cut lose, Hero."**

 **Jaune scoffed slightly before walking ahead of everyone, "Don't really want the whole world to fear me before I even become a Huntsman." Everyone looked at each other until Ren sighed.**

 **"Told you it was touchy subject." He said.**

"Seems like you were right," Ren commented at his other self's remark.

"It's weird to hear you speak to `yourself`, you know that right?" said Yang.

"Mine was a joke," he sighed.

Really, no one ever understood when he was joking…

 **They all walked to the edge of the docks and the smell of fish was overpowering to all of them.**

 **"It smells like fish!" Ruby said, pinching her nose.**

 **"Yes it does." Blake said with a small smile.**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow at her reaction before asking what most were thinking. "So, why exactly are we here?"**

 **Weiss answered shortly after that, "I heard that students from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. As a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it's my duty to welcome them!"**

 **"She also wants to spy on the competition to have the upper hand in the tournament." Blake stated.**

 **Jaune snapped his fingers, "That makes sense."**

 **"No one can prove anything!" Weiss defended herself.**

While everyone had a laugh at Weiss being found out, Ironwood instead nodded. "She's right to do that. Scoping out the competition isn't against the rules, and if it gives her team an advantage, I don't see the reason for not doing it."

"They know, they would've done it just the same even hadn't Weiss dragged them to do it," shrugged Ozpin. "It's just fun to see Ms Schnee being poked fun at."

"Is it?" Winter asked tensely.

"Of course it is." Ozping brought out his Scroll, where they could all see Jaune being chased by the girls again. "I even asked Phoenix to send me a copy of that video. Why should I have students, if not for my own personal entertainment?"

"Maybe to train them?" offered Sun.

"That's a secondary reason."

 **That's when everyone noticed cops standing in front of a dust shop that was recently robbed. They all overheard the detectives discussing the details: the dust was stolen, the money was left behind and this one was the second to be robbed this week. Eventually the White Fang were brought up and Weiss didn't take kindly to that.**

 **"The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates!" she stated.**

Weiss could feel Jaune going ramrod rigid at the mention of the White Fang. She glanced at him, but he had his eyes closed. He wasn't taking that mention kindly. Feeling the wind picking up, and they were in a closed room, she grabbed his hand and squeezed.

Slowly, with her presence, he calmed down, finally breathing out deeply. He quietly thanked her, but he didn't let go of his hand.

 **"What's your problem?" Blake followed up.**

 **"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."**

 **"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're just misguided."**

 **"Misguided? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!"**

 **"So they're very misguided!"**

"You were kinda biased for them," Jaune said, no venom in his voice even though he was still kinda rigid. "I can understand comradeship, but then why were you so hellbent on stopping them?"

"I…" She sighed "It's because Torchwick was the one to guide them…" Blake looked away. "I… Had they been another Faunus then I would've probably thought it yet another theft for their goals. I was biased against them because there was a human leading them."

Cardin scoffed. "A terrorist no matter what, that's what you are," he grumbled. "A terrorist and a fucking animal."

Ironwood frowned at his choice of word, but he was partially in agreement with the student. "As discriminating as Mr Winchester's words might be, he's not wrong on her being a terrorist," he stated. "Adding to that the fact that she appears to nurse mistrust and resentment against all of humanity, and her self-righteous attitude, I think you can all see the picture I'm trying to make."

"Of course we can see your picture, General, and believe me, you should quit being an artist because your pictures sucks," retorted Jaune, getting a quiet laugh outta Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha and Nora. "That's not who she is."

"Boy, you may think you know her, but I've live and experienced more than you have," replied the man, standing up to argue. "And the day you'll turn and spot her with a knife aimed at your back, you'll thank me for the warning."

"Mr Ironwood, if I may…" Ren stepped in as mediator. "As experienced as you might be, you don't know Blake. We do. She is a friend and she's even trying to atone for sins not committed by her but by an organization she was former member of. She has her flaws, that much is known, but no more than anyone else in here."

"She is a former terrorist!" exclaimed the man.

"With all due respect, sir, what does that matter?" asked the green-clad boy. "I've heard of you and I know, for example, that fifteen years ago you led a mission eventually ended in tragedy for your men. Were you stripped of your rank, never to be trusted with command again, because you couldn't make your men survive?"

"I-"

"I think Ren's question was not one meant to be answered with words, James," Ozpin said as he set down his mug. "You failed during that mission. Ms Belladonna failed during her time in the White Fang. That is the past. This is the present. Please, don't force Mr Phoenix's hand so early during his stay here."

Ironwood froze and looked away from the students. True to Ozpin's words, Phoenix was hovering over his shoulder like some flaming Knight of Death. James could barely make out the shape of a giant armoured knight within the roaring inferno that surrounded him. Phoenix's eyes burned as well, black flames that seemed to be the eyes of whatever monster of fire had taken his place. He was wielding no weapon, but the General had little doubts he would need it. Those flames would've probably been enough.

He sat back down.

 **Jaune decided to step between the two of them, "Okay. Why don't you two calm down before someone says something they'll regret." He looked at both of them in the eyes and they seemed to calm down until they all heard a commotion coming from the docks. They turned to see a monkey Faunus running from two officers. As he was running by them, he winks at Blake.**

 **"Well, there goes the competition." Yang said trying to defuse the situation.**

 **"Quick, we have to catch him!" Weiss was about to run after him before she turned to Jaune. "Jaune, use your Semblance! You'll catch him with no issue!" Jaune just raised an eyebrow and nodded before he deployed Raikiri's handle. He placed his hand on the handle long enough to absorb the dust he needed and his eyes shifted to yellow. He then took off in a burst of lightning after the Faunus. As he ran past the officers, he saw the Faunus running down an alley. He followed and got in front of him. He stopped and the Faunus had to skid to a stop to not run into him.**

 **"Whoa, where'd you come from?!" he asked.**

"Eh, to me, it must've looked like he appeared out of nowhere," Sun snorted in amusement. "Like, one second I'm running and then PUFF! Some guy is in front of me! And I'm like `What the actual heck?` and he's like `You'd better not give me problems`, and then…"

"Sun…" Weiss sighed. "We still haven't seen how will the Swordsman react to you."

"Oh."

 **"Better questions, who are you and why are you running from the cops?"**

 **"Look, man, I'm a student from Mistral. I came here to participate in the tournament with my team. I just stowed away on that ship to get here. That's all, I swear!"**

 **The cops started running down the alley and Jaune decided he believed him. He stepped to the side, "Go on. I'll buy you time." He grinned at him as he touched Dokiri's handle and his left eye turned brown.**

 **"Dude, you rock! Thanks! Name's Sun Wukong by the way!" He said as he ran past him.**

 **"Jaune Arc!" he shouted in return before he pulled up the ground in front of the officers enough for them to trip over. As they did, Jaune flashed past them and started to head back to the others. He caught up to them and found that there was now an orange hair girl with them. And Weiss and Blake were arguing again.**

Ironwood checked over his shoulder, seeing Phoenix still there. He decided not to scoff and comment on the Swordsman being a criminal like their own Jaune Arc. That decision saved him from a lot of pain.

 **"Hey." he said to everyone.**

 **"Back already? What about the Faunus?" Yang asked.**

 **He shrugged, "He's apparently from Mistral and is a student here for the festival. So I gave him a hand and let him go. These two at it again?"**

 **"Yup." Ruby and Yang said in unison.**

 **"Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!" Blake shouted in anger.**

 **"Oh, I'm sorry! Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can too?" replied Weiss.**

"Ouch. Weiss, did you really say that?" asked Jaune.

The white-themed girl flushed in shame and looked away. "I… I've had issues with Faunus before," she confided. "Growing up in a family like mine didn't help, either…" Phoenix's glare turning to Winter was enough to shut the Specialist up. "And… the White Fang played a part in my childhood's… not exemplar quality."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Jaune reassured her.

"No, I have to. You all deserve answers on why I was… still am… so cold. You'd do the same if it were to be the other way around." Weiss sighed and looked at the wall of amethyst. "My father… he has always been cold to everyone and everything. His company was all that mattered to him. Eventually, he only wanted two things. Money, and control. He had more than enough money from the company's incomes, and he demanded for everyone in the family to obey him. And… what he demanded, he received, or there would've been consequences."

"Did he ever… hit you?"

"No." Weiss's reply was too immediate and resolute to be a lie. "His ways were subtler. He is the reason every Schnee is mistrustful of the Faunus. With his ways of handling the company, the White Fang targeted the Schnee family, often searching for hostages to use. I was taken hostage too, when I was thirteen. I was on a `family` outing and the next thing I know I was being dragged away by people stronger than me, wearing masks and sporting animal traits."

"Did they do something to you?" Ruby asked, a bit fearful.

"No. They didn't have the time." Weiss shrugged lightly. "I don't know what they would've done, but someone arrived and saved me. He killed each and every one of them with a savagery I didn't think I'd ever see in a person, much less a boy. When he got me home again Winter offered him to train me and… he was the instructor I mentioned earlier."

"What was his name?" asked Ironwood.

Weiss shrugged again. "He told me to call him Comet. It was obviously a fake name, but I never knew his real name. He trained me for a little while and then he disappeared. I never met him again."

Jaune hugged Weiss a little closer. "I'm sorry for what you had to go through."

Weiss shook her head. "You shouldn't. It wasn't your fault. And besides…" She looked away again. "You suffered much more by the hands of the White Fang."

"But I did have my family's support," he countered. "Hadn't I had it… I would've been crushed."

 **"Stop it!"**

 **"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time and he'll probably join up with the White Fang!" Jaune now understood what they were talking about and he was getting annoyed. But decided he should stay out of this before he got mad and mate things worse. They all decided to head back to Beacon and the two never stopped arguing. Jaune was starting to get more and more frustrated with Weiss but kept to his guns and stayed out of it. The whole time, Ren and Nora kept glancing at Jaune to see if he'd jump in. They both hoped he wouldn't because when Jaune got mad, things never ended well. As they got back to the dorms, the two were just getting more heated, Jaune just took a deep breath to calm himself before he got Ruby's attention.**

 **"Hey, Ruby, do you want back up for that?" He waved his hand to their dorm where the two just went into.**

 **"Thanks, Jaune, but I think we can handle it. I don't think you know much about girl arguments." Ruby said and Yang nodded.**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow which felt like the millionth time today, "Again, seven sisters and Nora." He pointed to her who just smiled. "I know how to deal with angry women." Ruby and Yang looked at each other before they nodded. Jaune followed the two into their room as the rest of JNPR stood in the hall with the door still open.**

"It is kinda strange for them not to remember that…" noted Pyrrha. "I mean, I may not be an expert, but I think I'd remember if a friend had that many sisters…"

"Plus I would remember having to meet so many people when the time to meet the parents will come," Yang added under her breath. Blake heard her and forced down a grin.

"Honestly," said Ozpin, back to sipping his coffee. "Even at my age, I still haven't learned how to calm down two arguing women. Or even just _one_ woman."

"What are you insinuating, Ozpin?"

"Nothing, Glynda. I was just remembering the last time you had your period," replied the Headmaster. "Didn't you throw Peter out of the window for having asked you how you were?"

"It's better not to ask that question during a woman's period," retorted the Deputy Headmistress. Many of the girls nodded as well.

Phoenix chuckled and pointed at Jaune, who was desperately shaking his head, knowing what the Writer was about to say and trying to stop him. He didn't stop. "You know, Jaune here is a pranotherapist… And after living with so many women, he learned a few `tricks`…"

That got the attention of every girl in the room. Phoenix's smirk widened to epic proportions. Seriously, the Writer might've had the best intentions at heart -maybe- but he was really about to throw Jaune at the wolv… ladies. "For example, I've heard he can even…" Drums began to play, somewhere. "…erase the menstrual pains."

Jaune froze, and so did the others.

Then every girl in the room looked at him.

All the males, even Cardin and Neptune, sent a quick prayer to Oum to help the poor boy.

"Now, now, now… let's delay this until after the viewing, won't we?" Phoenix chuckled. _'And now, my revenge for that hug is complete.'_

Helios jumped on his lap and whined. _'Er… Yes, maybe you're right. Maybe I brought this too far…'_ Phoenix looked at the girls, who were still eyeing Jaune. Weiss especially seemed to have been suddenly glued to his side. _'I'll have to make it up to him. Although I did just help him get a gir… sorry, a few girlfriends.'_

Helios looked too, before he whined again and laid down to sleep. Phoenix began to absent-mindedly pet him.

 **"It's because of people like Cardin and you that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!" Blake shouted.**

 **"People like me?" Weiss asked in shock.**

 **"You're discriminatory!"**

 **"I'm a victim!" Weiss shouted and everyone stopped. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang, why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? Because they've been at war with my family for years. Since I was a child, I've watched family and friends disappear, board members executed, an entire train car of dust stolen. And every day my father would come home furious. Which made for a very difficult childhood."**

 **"Weiss." Ruby said to try and comfort her.**

 **"NO!" she shouted and stopped Ruby. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves and murderers!"**

 **"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Silence is what was met with that. Weiss stepped back in surprise and Blake looked at everyone in realization. Everyone was shocked but Jaune came to his senses first.**

 **"Blake…" he said as he reached forward before she dashed out the open door and past the rest of JNPR.**

 **"Blake, wait! Come back!" Ruby shouted as she ran to the door.**

 **Everyone was still in shock and was still processing when Weiss spoke. "I can't believe it. One of** _ **them,**_ **on my team." She said with a mix of pain and venom in her voice.**

Everyone calmed down at that. Blake felt her chest tighten at remembering that scene, and she looked away. She hadn't heard that sentence, having ran too soon. She felt a hand grab her own and when she looked up, she saw Jaune stretched out of his couch, looking at her. Not with understanding, because he didn't know what her choices had been. Not with pity, because she didn't deserve pity. But with support. Support she would receive no matter what.

She looked down at his hand, who had begun to run his thumb in circles over her own, and back up at him. She smiled a little, but she didn't let go of his hand. Her heart skipped a beat when he didn't, either.

 **Everyone then heard a growl and felt a pressure around them. Three people had felt this before: Nora, Ren and Weiss. Everyone turned to see Jaune's aura acting like a white inferno and he was clearly angry. "That's all you have to say, Weiss? Just a simple truth of her past comes out and you're ready to hate her? Not even gonna get the full story but you're gonna just write her off?" Jaune was looking at Weiss and his voice was barely above a whisper but everyone could hear him. No one moved and everyone just stared. "If you weren't my friend, I would be tempted to throw you out that open window behind you, like every other racist I've run into." Everyone was shocked with that.**

 **"Jaune, maybe you should calm down." Pyrrha said, trying to defuse the situation.**

 **"NO!" Jaune shouted and his aura grew brighter as he looked at Pyrrha and his team. They looked at him slightly fearful. "I'm tired of this!" He looked at everyone in the room before continuing. "You all wanted to know why I defend Faunus? Why I hate racists? Well the truth is, that when I ran away from home the only person to give a damn about me and cared for me was a Faunus!" Everyone was still in shock and he continued. "Yeah, the person that taught me everything I know, taught Nora and Ren everything they know. The person that cared for us like her own, saw us like her children. Our teacher was a Faunus!"**

 **"Jaune, please calm down." Ren tried to stop him. But Jaune just ignored him.**

 **"We saw her, the kindest person we know, try to help everyone she could. And practically everyone treated her like shit! No matter what she did or where she went, that's what she had to deal with. We wanted to stop it, to fight for her. But every time, we tried she'd stop us. Saying, 'Things won't always be like this.' She never let it get to her and we trusted her and obeyed her wishes. As much as it made us sick to see. And do you know what happened?"**

 **"Jaune, stop." Nora begged him.**

 **"A village we were passing through got overrun by Grimm. Even after all the soldiers there treated her as an animal, as a monster, she wanted to help them. But, the first chance they got, they ran! They turned their backs on someone risking everything to save them! They betrayed her! And all we could do was watch as she was killed by those damned creatures!" Jaune shouted and everyone was just further shocked by Jaune's tale. No one said a word, the only sound was Jaune's ragged breathing. Until everyone heard a whimper. Jaune turned and his anger faded instantly when he saw what happened. There was Nora, holding onto Ren tightly and crying her eyes out. Ren was holding her and trying to hold back his own tears. Jaune's heart broke, "Ren. Nora." He said in a whisper and he slowly reached out to them before he stopped. He clenched that hand into a fist before he ran past Weiss and jumped out the open window.**

Everyone was at loss of words. They hadn't expected the revelation, but what had most shocked them were two things. Jaune's anger that, while understandable, had still been intimidating, and the death of the Swordsman's teacher.

To tell the truth, they weren't too shocked by Jaune's fearsome fury. Their own Jaune didn't have a powerful Semblance like the Swordsman, and yet his anger had been overpowering, his words blades of icy fire. That the Swordsman held a similar temper was to be expected.

But the revelation of how his teacher had died… That had hit them hard. Not the adults, nor Jaune, Blake, Ren or Nora, they knew how harsh the world could be. But the other students… They had always had faith in humanity. Even if they knew that there were criminals, they had never thought someone would ever abandon someone else to the Grimm. Their Black and White view of the world couldn't fit the world they actually lived in any more. It never had.

In Ruby, Yang, Weiss and Pyrrha a light died. A light of innocence and naivety. A light that kept the shadows of the world at bay. Now keenly and painfully aware of the darkness, their souls were under siege from the shades that crept in the light. Their views of the world crumpled as it came down, revealing the world in shades of grey.

But as every hardship, seeing the darkness would only strengthen their light. They just needed time.

 **He rolled out of the fall and started running. Someone shouted for him but he kept running, using his aura to make himself faster. He stopped in front of the statue in front of Beacon. He was doubled over trying to catch his breath. "I'm an idiot. How could I bring that up? Especially in front of those two. I'm supposed to be their friend, their brother, their leader. And I pull that?" Tears started to run down his face. "I'm a joke." He said as he cried quietly. Until he heard someone behind him.**

 **"Jaune?" He turned quickly to see Blake with her own tears. He looked up when he noticed her bow was missing and he saw her black cat ears. He looked at them for a second before he met her eyes. He quickly wiped his eyes.**

 **"Blake, are you okay?"**

 **She looked at him for a few seconds, "I should ask you the same thing."**

 **He looked down and a few tears fell again before he looked back up at her, "I think we're in similar boats. Said things we didn't want to say, at least not yet. I ran but I really don't wanna be alone." He held his hand out to her. "Do you?" She looked at his hand for a second before looking back into his eyes and taking it.**

 **The two left Beacon and when they got to Vale, Jaune paid for a hotel room for them. The room wasn't too great. Had a queen sized bed, a couch, a decent tv and a bathroom. Blake was about to offer to take the couch but Jaune had already collapsed onto it and fell asleep. Blake just looked at him for a bit before she went to the bed and also fell asleep. Neither knew what would happen next. All they did know was that they were exhausted and would figure things out tomorrow. But at least they weren't alone in this.**

 _'I would've liked that…'_ thought Blake. _'Not being alone… not feeling like I was being hated… it'd have been nice.'_

The room was silent for a while. Those who had just opened their eyes to the real world didn't want to speak. Those who knew already didn't want to disturb them. Phoenix himself seemed just sad and dejected, as if disappointed in the world. Cardin, Neptune and Sun merely stood silent, staring at the floor.

Then Ruby sniffed.

She was trying to hold in the tears. She was the youngest and the naivest of all of them, and thus that had hurt her more than anyone else. She had always been ingenuously optimistic and she had always seen the world as something that could become a fairytale. The dark thoughts that before had only resided in her nightmares now haunted her mind. She was trying not to cry, but the dam broke when she thought of her mother. She had always believed the Grimm had killed her, and she would never forgive them for it, but now… how could she be sure? Maybe people had killed her, just like they had killed Jaune's father? Maybe people had betrayed her to save their own lives?

Jaune couldn't take it any more.

He gently detached Weiss from his side and walked up to Ruby. Taking the small girl into his arms bridal-style, he returned to his couch and sat back down with Ruby on his lap. He looked at Qrow, and the Huntsman merely nodded his permission. Then he looked at the others, and just held out his arms.

Slowly, the Watchers got up and walked up to them, joining the hug. First were Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha. Then came Yang, Nora, Ren and Sun. Ozpin, Qrow and Phoenix followed almost immediately afterwards. Winter, Ironwood, Goodwitch, Cardin and Neptune were the last ones to join the hug.

The whole group just held each other in silence, each of them supporting all the others like people were supposed to be.

 ** _*aims and takes the shot. Perfect centre, right in the feels*_**

 ** _Jokes aside, this chapter is really heavy... It starts light but then I follow TES's storyline and we fall into darkness._**

 ** _Normal chapter for Khor, right?_**

 ** _Anyway, just so you know... Weiss's `trainer` might be mentioned again. He's just an OC. In the stories (If I'll ever write them) where my SI appears in Remnant, it'll be my OC. You know, murderous-y and slightly psychopath-y._**

 ** _Anyway, even psychopaths need to sleep, so now I'm out._**

 ** _Until next night... no, wait, next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	20. Chapter 19

**_Hey guys! I'm here again! Aaaand... this is all I have to say. Oh, no, right! Last chapter I mentioned Jaune being a pranotherapist. It really fits his canon Semblance... but for the ones of you who don't know what a pranotherapist is, he is basically an energy healer. He transfers his energy to the "patient" and can re-balance his own energy to keep himself from hurting himself to heal others. I'm not the most knowledgeable, I've just been told this, okay?_**

 ** _And yes, it can erase menstrual pains. My brother is a natural pranotherapist. Usually my sister spends the first 1-2 days of her period balled up for the pain, almost screaming. If my brother helps, the pain fades to almost nothing. Handy, I know, but unfortunately I don't have that power, and my brother doesn't believe in magic so he doesn't want to use it. Talk about wastes... Anyway, onto the chapter!_**

It took them a good half an hour before Ruby finally stopped crying. One by one the Watchers detached themselves from the hug, and finally the small crimsonette was freed from everyone's embrace. She sniffled once more as she excused herself from the others and went into the bathroom. There, she looked at the mirror.

And promptly recoiled.

She looked terrible. Red eyes from crying, dried tear stains, some mucus from her nose, flushed skin… No, that wouldn't do. That _couldn't_ do. She couldn't be seen by Jaune like that. Not that he would mind, of course, but… she didn't want to be considered weak. She knew it was stupid, he would never do something like that, but she couldn't help but worry about how she looked.

No makeup, that much was clear. She didn't want Jaune to think she was beautiful only because of stuff she was wearing. No, _she_ had to be what Jaune focused on. _She_ had to be what he couldn't take his eyes off. _She_ had to be what he couldn't take his hands o… no wait, that one should've been locked in the back of her mind with the rest of the naughty thoughts. Anyway, long story short, she had to do all on her own, without makeup, to ensure he liked _her_ and not some stuff of unknown origin squashed on her face.

She washed off the tear stains and did her best to prepare herself. She even arranged her hair in what she thought would be a 'cute' hairstyle, and she practised a little her super-bright smile. That would totally make him hers, she was sure. What Phoenix had said was not wrong per se, even her father had had two wives although not at the same time, but she kinda wanted Jaune to notice her a bit more than the others. Oh, the others probably thought that too, but she was Ruby freaking Rose. A prodigy in combat, and a newly self-proclaimed prodigy in getting Jaune's attention. She looked at herself one more time, deeming her preparations to be complete, and she exited the bathroom, ready to reclaim her rightful place on Jaune's lap.

Only… it was already taken.

Ruby sweat-dropped and glared daggers at Helios, who was peacefully sleeping on Jaune's lap, one of his hands petting the dog instead of being petting her… she was _really_ jealous at the moment. She had liked Helios up until then but seeing him steal her place… no, she wouldn't allow such blasphemy to continue! She had to use her most powerful weapon!

"Jaaaaaune…" She sauntered toward him with a very purposeful swish of her hips, flashing him her brightest smile. On lesser beings without Aura, it would've probably been enough to kill them instantly. Fortunately Jaune wasn't a lesser being without Aura. She very purposefully licked her lips -she was still Yang's sister, after all- and leaned in on _their_ couch, keeping up the smile effortlessly. Then, she went for the kill. Her head tilting on one side, her lips puckering slightly, and her eyes widening, she used her pout. "Can I sit here?"

As if on cue, Helios woke up and looked up at Jaune with his own -literal- puppy eyes. The boy was torn. He would obviously choose Ruby in less than a heartbeat, but maybe there was something he could do… he glanced at Phoenix, desperately asking for help.

Then Writer merely shrugged. "I'm a Writer, not a relationship counsellor. What do you want me to do?"

"Take back your dog, or at least help me out, you godlike ass!" Jaune hissed, heard by everyone but uncaring of that fact.

Phoenix looked at him blankly. "You have reached LordHellPhoenix, he is not present at the current moment. Please leave a message and he'll get back to you… eventually."

That earned a few laughs, but Jaune just scowled. "It seems you win this round, Phoenix. Ah… 100000 to 0 still, uh? We shall see who will win in the end." Ignoring the obnoxious laughs of Cardin and Neptune, he gently picked Helios up, set him aside, then picked Ruby up -much to her delight and embarrassment-, set her down on his lap, then picked the dog up again and placed him on Ruby's lap. "I think this should work…"

Helios barked and jumped off.

"What?!" exclaimed the boy. "But… what?!"

Phoenix laughed as Helios barked again, rubbed his head against Jaune's leg, and then trotted over to Sun. "He was just teasing," the Writer explained. "He's not just a dog, but he's very smart. Plus he just didn't want to overcrowd your lap."

Jaune huffed.

Now back in her rightful place, Ruby decided it was time to act mature once again. Jaune had comforted her earlier so she had to thank him… somehow. And she knew just the method. Still keeping a totally innocent smile on her face, she reached around his chest and briefly rubbed his 'sweet spot' between his wings. He stiffened for a second but managed to hold in a groan. Thankfully, Ruby's hand retreated soon…

Only for another, a larger one, to take her place.

Jaune _Arc_ ed (AN: I'm a monster, I know) his back, much to Ruby's contentment as he pressed himself more against her, and he barely caught a glimpse of blonde before the owner of the hand moved closer. Still, it had been enough. "Yannnngggghhhh," he tried to say, not completely successful.

Then, much to his despair -and to be honest, pleasure-, a second hand joined in. He caught a flash of flaming red hair before his back arched more and he found himself basically staring up at the ceiling. 'Downstairs', another natural reaction of his body was making Ruby blush vermilion.

"Stop."

A purple glow surrounded the two hands -not that he could see that- that were pried off his back forcefully. Goodwitch flicked her crop before putting it away. "This is enough. In case you haven't noticed, what you just did could be accounted to as sexual molestation."

"But Ruby…"

"Ms Rose was in the wrong to act without permission from Mr Arc," she stated sternly. "For a Faunus, having their traits touched without permission is rarely well-accepted."

"And even without counting that I find that, despite all my jokes and pranks, Jaune here is at serious disadvantage," added Phoenix, standing up and strolling over to the eight students. "You see… you girls can just act hurt and pouting and he'll try to make you happy. Plus now you even know his sweet spot. _And_ you're five on one. Not fair at all…"

"All is fair in war and love," snickered Cardin.

"You know what Birdie? For once that thick skull of yours said something right. So it's also fair if I 'help' Jaune a tiny bit, isn't it?" The girls paled, and Phoenix chuckled evilly. "But before I do… let's make sure only the seven of us can hear." Violet flames enveloped the Five Girls and Jaune. "Perfect. Now only you can hear me. So… since you know of Jaune's sweet spot, why shouldn't I tell him about yours?"

As the girls desperately shook their heads to try and stop him. Phoenix cackled like a villain. "Jaune, just so you know, petting Blake's cat ears _really_ make her purr. And Weiss just becomes putty if you massage her shoulders. As for the others…" His grin couldn't widen any more. "Pyrrha's lower back seems to be extremely sensitive, Yang's neck just _adores_ to be caressed, and Ruby loves to have her legs massaged. Isn't it true, girls?" The girls' blushes were enough. Everyone but Ruby had very quickly put some space between themselves and Jaune to avoid any attempt at getting back at them, especially Yang and Pyrrha. Ruby, instead, knew Jaune would've never been mean enough to-

"Nnnngggghhh…"

"How does it feel, Ruby?"

Phoenix snorted in amusement one last time before giving Jaune a folded piece of paper and sitting down on his couch. The flames went away, and Jaune stopped massaging Ruby's thighs to open and read the paper.

 _"That will probably keep them at bay for a while. But if you ever need a secret weapon… use this! Remember that every one of the girls is ticklish. Actually, every Watcher beside Idiotwood. Every one of them has a weak spot.  
Ruby – on her sides, especially her ribcage. Weiss – her feet. Feather-light touches just make her go insane. Blake – her stomach, especially her belly button. Yang – her armpits and don't worry, she shaves. Pyrrha – her neck. Especially, try blowing a raspberry on her neck. Nora – the sides of her stomach.  
Use this wisel… What am I saying? Use this in the most wicked way possible. Also, I suggest you to start figuring out your own feelings. No need to rush it, but it's better for you too to have a clear head about it. Take it from someone with experience.  
Your most gracious host, LordHellPhoenix."_

He grinned as the screen started up.

 **Blake woke up the next morning with a start. She didn't remember why she was in a hotel room until the memories of the day before came back to her. She was saddened when thinking about what happened. She looked around the room to look for Jaune but didn't see him. She assumed he left at some point and this hurt her. She understood why he'd leave but it hurt all the same. She'd thought after yesterday, that he'd at least tell her if he was leaving.**

Immediately, his grin was lost, and Jaune glanced at Blake. "You know I'm better than that, Blake, I would never do that," he reminded her. She wilted a little and he sighed. "Come here, kitty cat, you did nothing wrong."

Hesitantly, Blake stood up and took a seat beside Jaune. After a second, he hugged her with just one arm. After another second, she relaxed and leaned her shoulder against his, taking slight comfort in his closeness. He was a good friend.

 **She than heard the shower running in the bathroom and she realized that it had to be Jaune. She sighed in relief. She wasn't ready to talk about yesterday but it was nice to have someone. To not be alone. The shower stopped a few minutes later and Jaune came out topless drying his hair. Blake blushed seeing his toned body but then her eyes widened when she saw the huge scar running across his chest. When Jaune was done with his hair, he saw that Blake was up and staring at him. He followed her gaze and saw she was looking at his scar. He looked back up at her and she now had an apologetic look but Jaune just gave her a reassuring smile. He motioned to the bathroom with his head, "Bathroom's all yours, Blake." He said as he made his way over to the couch to put on his black shirt and hoodie. Blake nodded before she made her way to the shower.**

 **The two of them spent the day just exploring Vale and enjoying the decent weather. Neither really said anything besides small talk. They had enough on their minds and were just glad to have someone close, just in case. The two made their way to a park in the middle of Vale, they sat down on a bench and just enjoyed the sunshine. Until Jaune's scroll went off, again. When the two left Beacon they shut off the GPS on their scrolls. Blake was getting messages and calls from Ruby and Yang nonstop, so eventually she decided to just shut it off. Jaune was getting just as many from Pyrrha, not from Nora and Ren but that wasn't surprising. They were either still hurt or knew Jaune needed space. Around the time Blake shut off her scroll, Ruby and Yang started messaging him as well. He eventually had enough and took out his scroll to send a message to all three.**

"Is he…?"

"No, Blake, I doubt he would immediately tell us," sighed Yang. "Although I do hope you two don't do anything stupid like trying to take on Torchwick on your own. That could result in serious injuries… although I think you would still win. Somehow."

"Well, not hard to believe, given the semi-omnipotent guy she has with her," grumbled Neptune.

 **Jaune: Girls, I'm fine. Blake and I are just staying in Vale. We need some space to clear our heads. We'll be back soon so don't worry. We'll be fine.**

 **Blake was watching Jaune type and was worried he was going to say where they were. She wanted to see her team and friends but she just wasn't ready. Not yet at least. Jaune saw her staring at him and he showed her the message he typed out. She looked at him when she was done and he raised an eyebrow, asking her a question. She nodded in response and he sent the message. The two spent the rest of the day in the park and when the sun went down they made their way back to the hotel. Jaune sat down on the couch to watch tv and Blake sat down next to him reading a book. They just sat there in a comfortable silence. Blake looked over to Jaune and she was still in disbelief. His presence just somehow calmed her. Even though she was worried and freaking out, Jaune just being near was enough to relax her. She smiled slightly before she went back to her book.**

"Apparently, you just discovered the 'Jaune Light', as we call it," smiled Pyrrha. Ruby and Nora echoed that smile, and even Ren had a small one of his own. "You'll get addicted to that."

"The Jaune what?" asked the girl.

"The _Jaune Light_ ," repeated Pyrrha. "Whenever you are around him, you feel calmer and usually, just having his presence around leads to you turning to him for guidance whenever you need. That's why, during Initiation, our team obeyed to his orders so efficiently. While Ruby had to _prove_ she was a good leader, Jaune was simply accepted as one. The _Jaune Light_ is just one of the effects we noticed around us."

"Like?" asked Weiss. "Care to give an example?"

"Well, speaking of you, there's the _Weiss Perfection_. Whenever you're around people tend to be more respectful of the rules and tend to give their best… although we are not sure if it's really you, or just the fear you inspire in others like the Professor's _Goodwitch Dread_." The woman deadpanned at Yang. "Being around Nora instantly gives you a 'Nora Freedom' for her carefree attitude. While Ren has his 'Ren Trance'. Whenever he's around, people are calmer. Although Jaune usually make people accept their turmoil, while Ren lessens its impact on them. Plus Ren inspires wisdom."

"Are you serious?" Blake raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I am. Pyrrha has her 'Pyrrha Inspiration'. When she's around, people tend to do stuff better. And Ruby has her 'Ruby Charm', cheering people up like no other." Yang tossed her head to shake her hair. "And this bombshell beauty here has her 'Yang Genuineness'. Did you ever ask yourself how did I manage to drag you out of your shell, kitty cat?"

"Well… you do have a point…"

 **An hour later Jaune was brought out of his train of thought when he felt something lean against him. He looked to see Blake had fallen asleep and was now leaning against him. He looked at her sleeping face and smiled, she was adorable. He gently picked her up in a bridal carry and brought her over to the bed. He laid her down and covered her with the blankets, he gently rubbed her head and he heard a small purring like sound come from her. He smiled and chuckled slightly. "Good night, Blake." Was all he said before he went to shut off the lights and made his way over to the couch. He turned off the TV and laid down on the couch to fall asleep.**

"She can purr like an animal," Cardin scoffed offensively, crossing his arms on his chest. "I bet she's also as easy as a cat in heat…"

Before anyone could say or do anything, Phoenix decided to start making it up to Jaune and the girls by bolting across the room and delivering a sharp uppercut to Cardin's chin, strong enough to lift him off his couch. Then he hopped and spinning-kicked the bully three feet into a wall.

Without saying a word, the Writer huffed in exasperation and walked back to his seat, settling down and glaring at the screen, not really in the mood to talk.

* * *

 **The next morning went pretty much the same way as the day before. The two made their way to a café, Blake got tea and Jaune got coffee. She noticed he drank it every opportunity he could.**

 **"You really are a coffee hound, aren't you?" she said with a small smile.**

 **Jaune chuckled, "One of many things I got from my teacher." He replied with a sad smile. There was silence between the two until Jaune sighed. "Alright, where should we start?"**

 **Blake didn't need him to explain to her what he meant but she had a question she had to ask first, "Why'd you take the couch, Jaune? You could've taken the bed or we could've shared it."**

 **Jaune thought for a second, "I wouldn't've minded us sharing the bed, but we are both dealing with a lot emotionally." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I didn't wanna risk us doing something we may regret later. I don't wanna ruin our friendship by doing something like that." He took a sip from his coffee before looking back at her. "Besides, I couldn't make you take the couch. Both of my mothers raised me better than that." He smiled.**

"Stress relief? That was a good call, although I doubt they would've really done something like that," commented Goodwitch. Everyone looked at her. "What? I am not some unknowledgeable child who is too embarrassed by sex to talk about it. Plus I unfortunately had to give the Talk to more than a student because moronic parents hadn't."

Qrow whistled innocently while glancing at a certain Rose. After all, it totally wasn't _his_ fault. Just Tai's and Yang's.

Everyone else just winced at the thought of Goodwitch giving anyone the Talk. The poor students must've been traumatized for the rest of their miserable lives. They were pretty sure they hadn't had children. Unbeknownst to them, Goodwitch had actually given the Talk to Jaune's parents as well as Taiyang himself, although she was just an upperclasswoman at the time. Summer too had been taught, but she had exited the room with a mighty blush, as opposite to the Taiyang's, John's and Jude's wide grins.

 **Blake was taken back by his genuine care for her and this new fact he just revealed to her. "Both?" she asked stunned.**

 **"Long story. But we have time though." He looked up at the sky before he looked back at her. "It all starts with my scar. You see, I was always treated special in my family. Being the only son of eight does that. My younger sisters always looked up to me and wanted to always be with me. While my elder sisters always babied me. My parents were also a bit overprotective but they let me have space." He sighed. "That was until I turned six."**

 **He took another sip of his coffee. "We all went camping for my birthday. My younger sisters and I were playing when an Alpha Beowolf came out of the nearby forest and went to attack them. The only thing I remember after that is me jumping in front of my sisters to protect them. My father had to unlock my aura to save my life but that's when everything changed for me." He looked out over the street and subconsciously touched his scar through his clothing, "My parents and sisters became so overprotective after that. It was suffocating. All I ever wanted was to be a hero, a huntsman. Now I had my aura and a lot of it. But my family refused to allow me to train** **. I could barely leave my home without being escorted."**

"Jaune… I was thinking… did your family become like that after… you know?" Weiss hesitantly asked.

Jaune shook his head. "Nope. My father tried to teach me but the Arc tradition has to be followed. The tradition forbids to unlock the trainee's Aura until they can kill… I think an Ursa on their own, without Aura." He shrugged at the others' faces. "My father died before he could unlock it, and it took me more than a year to get over the loss of my wings." He unfolded one of the appendages and expanded it over his chest, caressing the white feathers. "After I was done being depressed, I basically had to start all over again, and no one in the family really had the time to train me. Nor did they felt skilled enough to. My sisters can all more or less fight, but they're not Huntresses and they didn't want to mess up my training."

"So you just gave up?" sneered Cardin, forcing himself out of the hole he had been kicked into. "Pathetic."

Yang smirked as she 'summoned' a rock, and chucked it at him. "Cardin, I miss throwing rocks at you, do you want me to start all over again?"

 **He was quiet for a bit but Blake let him take his time. "Eventually, I had enough. So, at the ripe old age of nine, I ran away from home. A few days after that, I was attacked by a pack of Grimm. Luckily, I was saved by my soon to be teacher." He smiled slightly. "She wanted to take me back to my home but I refused. I told her that because I had this power, it was my responsibility to help people. She saw my determination and decided she would train me. We sent a letter to my family to tell them that and we left. Must have been funny to see, a human boy and a Faunus traveling together."**

 **Blake was shocked, "Your teacher was a Faunus? So, the person that you said made you want to help Faunus was your teacher?"**

 **Jaune nodded, "Yup. It was the least I could do after everything Gin did for me."**

 **Blake's jaw dropped, "Wait a minute, Gin? As in Gin Inari? The Legendary Faunus Huntress, the Silver Kitsune was your teacher?!"**

"Gin who?" asked Blake. If she was really so famous, then why didn't she knew of that?

"That is another universe," Phoenix explained. "People you might know in this might not even exist in that one, and vice versa. Let's just say she was a very famous Huntress who was also a Faunus. I'm not too sure if there is a similar person in your universe because I'm not the one who is documenting it, so I can't give you examples."

 **Jaune smiled before he reached into his pocket. "The very same." He pulled out his scroll and started looking through it. "See for yourself." He handed her his scroll. On it was a picture of Jaune wearing his normal gear with Raikiri resting on his right shoulder. Ren was on his right with Stormflower at the ready. Nora was between the two with an arm around each of them and Magnhild in its hammer form on the ground with Nora balancing on it. They all had huge smiles on their faces and to Jaune's left was a young woman in her early thirties. She had a slim figure with a generous bust, probably the same size as Yang's. She wore a skin tight grey body suit with black armor on her shoulders, forearms, thighs, shins and chest. Two katanas were side by side attached to her right hip; one was black and the other was white. She had long silver hair that was tied back in a low ponytail and ran down to the middle of her back. She had golden colored eyes that held so much warmth in them and her smile was just as warm. She had her right arm behind Jaune's back and her head was leaning on Jaune's left shoulder. The most shocking thing about the picture though was that she had silver fox ears and a silver fox tail.**

 **"Wait, Faunus are only supposed to have a single animal characteristic. But she has two?" Blake said as she looked up at Jaune and handed the scroll back to him.**

"A Faunus that's even more animal?" sneered Cardin. He tried to say more, but this time it was Sun who lost his temper. He deployed his Bo staff and knocked the bully off his couch with a single backward swing.

"Will you just _cut_ _it off!?_ " he exclaimed, pissed off. "She's a person!"

"As much as I agree with Mr Wukong," stated Ironwood. "Such mutation is unheard of. If a Faunus with twice the amount of animal genes in their DNA. Maybe even fifty percent each. If only Atlas could have her… maybe we would be able to compare their DNA codes and see what exactly make Faunus so. It would be a great mystery uncovered."

Phoenix tensely tattooed his fingers on the couch's armrest. "Idiotwood, you are exactly like in many other universes. And let me tell you how it ends in those universes. You mess up bit time. Your 'future' sins outweigh everyone else's in this room. By far. Because of your mistrust in Ozpin and arrogance, because of your false belief that an army can solve anything, you offer the enemy the perfect way for their plan to work and you 'help' cause one of the biggest disasters to happen across your corner of the Multiverse." Phoenix cracked his knuckles. "Add to that the fact that you would probably put your 'scientists' experiments' over the wellbeing of people, and that you believe that 'for the greater good' is an excuse for everything even when you're the only one to believe in said greater good, and you'll get that I'm not exactly thrilled by having you in this room. So, I suggest you to shut up before you push me to do something _you_ will regret. I can assure you, despite my usual calm, I _am_ able to get angry and when I do, it usually isn't pretty."

Ironwood scowled at that, but stayed silent.

 **Jaune shrugged, "She was born like that. Apparently it was mutation and it was mostly because of that, that she was treated so harshly." He said with an edge in his voice. "Apparently, people thought she was more animalistic, even compared to other Faunus." He sighed, "Anyways, not even a year after she started my training we ran into Nora and Ren. And with that we had our family." He smiled.**

 **Blake smile at that, "You loved her, didn't you."**

 **Jaune nodded, "At first I just saw her as my teacher. But the more time we spent together I started seeing her as my friend." He chuckled a little. "I even had a small crush on her for a while." He sighed and looked up into the sky. "Eventually that crush progressed and I started to love her like an older sister. And eventually, like another mother." He looked down for a second. "Although I barely ever told her so. I was kinda worried she'd get as overprotective as my birth mother."**

 **"So, what happened?" she asked, knowing it wasn't going to be a happy ending.**

 **Jaune took another sip of his coffee to calm himself. "It happened almost a year ago."**

* * *

 _ **The sounds of people screaming, roars of the Grimm and the sound of battle was all that could be heard. The small village was being torn apart, along with the soldiers trying to protect them. Until explosions and bullets could be heard. Ren and Nora burst onto the scene laying down suppressive fire. Jaune started ripping through Grimm using Fukiri and Suikiri. And Gin was further up fighting with her white katana, cleaving through any and all Grimm in her way. She soon got surrounded and she sheathed her white katana and drew her black one. As soon as she did, a blinding light was released that blinded the Grimm. They looked like they could win, until more Grimm started coming and the soldiers started retreating.**_

 _ **Gin looked at her students, "You three need to pull back! I can handle this!"**_

 **"** _ **No way! Even you can't handle all of this!" Jaune shouted.**_

 **"** _ **Jaune, trust me!" she pleaded.**_

 _ **Their eyes connected and he nodded. He got to Nora and Ren and the three retreated. When they were a good distance away, they turned to see Gin use her Semblance, Tenko, her golden eyes started to glow and her hair, ears and tails shifted to the same golden color. Her senses went off the charts, along with her strength and speed. She started to tear through the Grimm. They all thought she could do it. Until they heard the gunshot. Tenko did increase her strength and speed but it used practically all her aura. The bullet tore through her aura along with her shoulder and her Semblance started to fade.**_

"WHAT?!" Nora exclaimed.

"That must've been a soldier, Grimm don't have guns!" shouted Yang.

"But why should they shoot on a friendly Huntress?" asked Pyrrha. "She was killing the Grimm easily…"

 _ **The three turned to see the captain of the soldiers holding a rifle. They all snapped and ran at him. He tried to fire at them as well but Ren started firing at him, causing him to backpedal. As he was doing that, Jaune used Fukiri to pull him towards them. Jaune then knocked the rifle out of his hands with a water blast from Suikiri and Nora broke his legs with Magnhild. The man fell to the ground while crying out in pain. Jaune sheathed Suikiri and picked the man up by the front of his shirt.**_

 **"** _ **What the fuck!? Why'd you do that!?" he shouted.**_

 _ **The man just chuckled, "Why wouldn't I? Why sacrifice my men's lives when I could just sacrifice an animal? Let those monsters have her as we get away. Everybody wins." Jaune punched the man and he hit the ground hard. He spat out blood. "What? Are you sad that your pet got killed?" He started laughing manically but stopped with a gasp of pain. He looks to see Jaune standing above him with anger in his eyes and his aura burning bright, with Fukiri through his chest. The man died right after that. The second person Jaune ever killed was now laying on the ground in front of him.**_

"Second?"

"You'll see it later," explained Phoenix.

"B-But… but why?" asked Ruby, teary-eyed. "I mean… they could've won with no casualties! Why kill her? It… it wasn't a win-win! W-Why… why…"

"As much as it pains me to say this, the world is a heartless place, kiddo," said Qrow, frowning at the screen. "There are the jerks who would do anything for their own gain… and then there are the assholes who hurt others just out of pleasure, habit or mere careless neglect."

"As you have seen, the world is no fairytale, Ms Rose," Ozpin explained. "Remnant is an unforgiving world, and its inhabitants have learned to be just as harsh to survive. The time we are living in is incredibly peaceful, and yet events such as this still happen. You must know this, if you plan on making it better."

 _ **"Burn in hell." Was all he said as he pulled his sword free from his chest. He wiped off the blood and sheathed it. He turned to see Nora and Ren staring at him with shock but also agreeance. They all heard a scream and turned to see Gin heavily wounded and surrounded. Without even thinking Jaune drew Raikiri with his right and Kakiri with his left. His eyes shifted to the respective colors before he shouted, "GET AWAY FROM HER!" he shot off in a burst of lightning and started tearing through the Grimm with his swords. The fire and lightning also killing their fair share. After a few minutes the Grimm were all dead. He was out of breath and dust. He sheathed both his swords and ran to Gin who was now laying on the ground. Her swords were missing and she had serious wounds across her body. Her shoulder had a hole from the bullet, she had deep slashes across her arms and stomach, and she had a huge chunk bitten out of her upper arm. She was breathing weakly. Jaune knelt down and gently lifted her into a sitting position. "Gin?"**_

 _ **She slowly opened her eyes. "Jaune? What happened to the people? Are they safe?"**_

 _ **He bit his lip slightly, "Yes. They're fine. You will be too. Just hold on."**_

 _ **She slowly shook her head, "I've lost too much blood, Jaune. I don't have long." She looked into his eyes, "Jaune, take care of Nora and Ren. Please."**_

 **"** _ **You don't even need to ask." He was trying to hold back his tears.**_

 _ **She nodded, "I'm so proud of you three. More than just students. I always wanted kids but never had the chance to have my own. But you three showed me what it is like to have them. Thank you." She said with a small smile.**_

 _ **Jaune shook his head as tears started to fall, "We should be thanking you, Mother."**_

 _ **Her eyes grew wide before she started crying, "If you think I'm worthy of that title then I have no problem calling you my son. I love you, Jaune." As she finished that sentence she died in his arms with that same small smile.**_

 _ **Jaune pulled her close to him and started crying more. "I love you too, Mother." He lost it completely and started sobbing uncontrollably. Nora and Ren was with them soon and also started crying. For the death of their teacher and mother.**_

No one spoke. Despite his racism, Cardin was not a monster, and even he stayed silent, mourning the death of the Huntress. Ozpin sighed, but he had to admit to himself that while making the students watch it was painful for them, a lesson about mortality would've been useful. Too many Hunters died because they perceived themselves invincible and immortal.

With a bit of luck, they could learn from it.

Blake was probably hit the hardest. Seeing her fears come true, seeing Faunus being discriminated to the point of careless murder, reminded her of just how much her race was hated. She had been on the verge of taking off her bow at the start of the viewing, since everyone knew she had been in the White Fang and thus knew she was a Faunus. Plus the screen had made it clear. But after seeing that… how much hatred would she get for it?

"We're here for you, don't ever forget it." Jaune's voice was the only warning she received before she was enveloped in an embrace, Ruby having climbed down from the boy's lap to allow him more freedom of movement. She didn't fight back, and she soon found herself in a warm hug.

Neptune, noticing, rolled his eyes. "Of course he goes and hugs the pretty sad girl," he scoffed.

"Neptune, Jaune does not see girls only as 'cool' or 'pretty' dolls to play with and abandon after you got bored of them like you do," Phoenix scolded him, and Helios breathed out a little flame to emphasis the point. "He sees them as people, and right now he's just comforting a friend."

* * *

 **"We buried her in a small forest clearing not far from the village. And that's what happened." Jaune was looking down and a tear slid down his face into the remainder of his coffee. Blake just stared at Jaune. She could see just how much pain he was going through by bringing up those memories. Without even thinking, she got up and walked around the table to hug him. Jaune was taken off guard when his head was pulled against her stomach and her arms wrapped around his neck. "Blake?"**

 **"Shhh." Was all she said. Jaune didn't say word after that and just buried his face into her stomach as he returned the hug by wrapping his arms around her lower back. After a few minutes they separated and Blake brought her chair over to sit next to Jaune. "So, how does this connect with the other night?"**

 **"After you left, Weiss was in shock and said something. I took it the wrong way and overreacted, big time. I pretty much told, no shouted, to everyone a summarized version of what I told you. And it hurt Ren and Nora." He looked at her. "I'm supposed to be their friend, their brother. And I reopened those wounds so callously. That's why I ran. I have no right to be around them." Blake wanted to say something but couldn't think of a thing. "Although, one good thing did come out of all this." She looked at him in confusion. He had a small smile on his face, "I got to see you without your bow and I was right, you are more beautiful without it." Then in a whisper, he said, "Your ears are adorable."**

"May I?" asked Jaune, grabbing the bow and raising an eyebrow at Blake.

"I… not right now, please," she pleaded quietly. "Maybe later… at the moment, I don't feel okay with it."

The boy nodded and released her ribbon. Cardin noticed, though, and a cruel smirk forming on his face as he thought of a plan. That would teach the animal her place. Although… he would need to do it when Phoenix wasn't around, or he'd be toast. Quite literally.

 **Blake blushed at both compliments before she regained her composure. "Why are you still with me?" Jaune just raised an eyebrow. "I know you don't care that I'm a Faunus. But I was a member of the White Fang, you should hate or fear me. Like most people would."**

 **Jaune just sighed, "Blake, you just explained why I don't see you differently. You're no longer a member of the White Fang. Your past doesn't define you, just gives you a starting point. What you choose to do** _ **now**_ **is what matters and you chose to leave to do good, to be a Huntress. Besides, Gin was also an ex-Fang member and she was the kindest person I ever knew. Same with you. I can see it in your eyes. You don't want blood and destruction. You want equality, same as me. So, why should I see you differently? You're still the same Blake, just with less secrets." He gave her his usual smile.**

 **Blake just stared at him in shock before she smiled just as big as his. She took his hand in hers before saying, "Thank you, Jaune." 'For being the best person I ever met.' she added in her mind.**

 **"Anytime, Blake."**

Everyone sighed in relief as the viewing ended. That had been even heavier than the last one, and that was saying everything.

"Well, at least it's over," sighed Jaune, comfortingly rubbing Blake's back. "Let's hope for a lighter one next time. We really don't need three heavy viewing one after the other."

Cardin scoffed. "If you pussies can't handle something like that, then even watching a card game is too much for you," he sneered.

"Cardin, you're not even amusing any more," sighed Weiss. "Your insults got old quite a few viewings ago."

"To tell the truth, everything here, except for the viewings, is quite a bit boring," noted Jaune. "I mean, we've been closed in this room for maybe even hours, it's… kinda starting to feel claustrophobic."

"I will talk to the houseowner to see if we can house the viewings in other rooms or places as well," replied Phoenix. "We originally planned for you to always remain in this room, since you've been teleported into another dimension, but I guess it _is_ getting old quickly. Although I'll have to ask Khor, the houseowner, for permission as this is _his_ fortress, not mine."

"A change would be nice," agreed Pyrrha. "When do you think you'll be able to speak with the houseowner?"

"Eh, that depends on how lazy I'm feeling, how lazy he is feelings, and the how much it takes him to set up viewing spots near the fortress," shrugged the Writer. "But it's still a big maybe. You might not be allowed outside for your own sanity, or stuff like that. And don't look at me like that, I've never been outside this fortress into his grounds before, so I have no idea."

"Well, that's reassuring," sighed Weiss, pinching her nose. "At least it's a chance…"

 ** _Phoenix, if you're reading this, yes I might think of moving them around a bit. The Watching Hall is a cliché, but I want to have a little more variety since it's getting a little dull to just have them locked in there. (poor them)_**

 ** _Okay, so... What do you think? Did I do good? Yes? That's good to hear. No? Eh, better luck next time._**

 ** _Again, there's an Omake here. This time the inspiration came from Void Death's Harbinger... you still remember last Omake, don't you? Yes, it's still my friend Apex of Failure, who changed his name just recently. Mind me, this Omake is short._**

FEELING THE SHADOWS OF A BRIGHT LIGHT

Phoenix was gone again, and this time no one was relaxed. They all knew what had happened last time Phoenix hadn't been there. The shadow-wraith-spectre thing who had come to warn them. No one of them was really keen on repeating the experience. Unfortunately for them, that was not how it was going to go. Their willpower wasn't enough to change reality.

The door opened, and again the shadow, Harbinger, appeared on the threshold. "Greetings, Children of Life. I, Harbinger, have come once again, as it has become clear not everyone of you learned from our last meeting." Its red and ethereal eyes wandered over them. "Some of you have not found the answer within themselves, instead choosing to blind themselves to everything they wanted not to see."

The shadow slithered forwards, ignoring the Eight Students as it stopped before a certain bully. "Black Bishop of Winchester. Your malevolence toward the Knight of Arc is matched only by your ignorance. You deem yourself worthy of judging who you cannot even understand." The shadow floated closer to the boy, who tried to lean back into his couch. "You know nothing of the pain the Knight of Arc has gone through. Malevolence born from ignorance shall be punished with burden born from understanding. You shall understand, or you shall die trying."

A single ethereal hand, black and surrounded by smoke, appeared from underneath Harbinger's cloak and reached out to touch Cardin's forehead. His eyes grew wider and wider as the shadow appendage closed in, but everyone else was just paralysed. A single finger touched the skin, and a bolt went through the boy.

 _Pain. Searing agony starting from his wings and extending onto his whole back, the flames burning hotter than anything else he'd felt before. White and black flashes before his eyes before everything just disappeared into a pulsing grey._

Cardin gasped as he felt pain to a level he had never thought possible. He tried to scream, but not a sound came forth.

 _Desperation. Loss. Defeat. No more would he fly high in the skies. No more would he be comforted by his father every time he did something wrong during training. They were gone. His father was gone. His wings were gone. Forever... What meaning did Life had, if everything could be stripped from him so quickly?_

The pain suddenly stopped, but what came next was almost worse. A sense of defeat, of abandon, of betrayal... burning bright yet dulled by sorrow. He saw flashes of worried faces and he felt the dull beating of his heart.

 _Forever... Such a long time, one no mortal could grasp the concept of. His wings were gone, his father was gone, and he was but a shell of who he once was. Stumps, scars and memories were all he had left, and even those had begun to fade... the feeling of defeat settled in, every day becoming burrowing deeper and deeper into his heart..._

"M-Make it stop..." Cardin whispered, pressing his forehead against the cold floor, his eyes wide open. "Please, m-make it stop..."

 _It should've been a new life, an escape from his old pains, but Beacon turned out to be far less shiny than he had expected. Friends aside, the protectors of humanity seemed awfully quick to make fun of a talentless boy like him. Bullism, ridicule, obnoxiousness, arrogance... he was thrown everything at. Hadn't his friends been there for him, he would've just dropped out... he was a failure... a nobody... everyone would've probably been better off without him..._

"S-STOP! PLEASE STOP!" screamed Cardin, tears running down his cheeks. "I UNDERSTAND, PLEASE JUST MAKE IT STOP!"

His head jerked up, face tear stained and eyes wide in fright, searching for Harbinger, Herald of Death, the one who -or that- had inflicted upon him such terrible punishment. He pushed himself off the floor and looked around frenetically, but...

Of Harbinger, there was no sign left.

 ** _Whoa, that was nice. I hope you liked Cardin's punishment because soon, the plan he mentioned will become true and it will make you all hate him even more. And more. And more._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	21. Chapter 20

**_Heya guys! Wow, two updated stories in a day... Incredible. Anyway, next update will be Viewing The Sins of the Past since I've been commissioned the second chapter, so don't expect DarkerShade to be updated as well. And after Halloween I will actually start my translating job so things might get busier. With that being said, onto the chapter!_**

"Perfect, he says we can go outside."

Everyone turned to the Writer, who hadn't moved from his couch since the last viewing. He clapped his hands and stood up, heading for the door. Only after he noticed how all eyes were on him, and no one had moved to follow him, he stopped and turned around. "Err… What?"

"You haven't spoken with anyone, nor moved, nor received any sort of message," Yang pointed out. "How can you know what he said? 'He' didn't even come here to tell you personally."

Phoenix blinked and gestured to himself. "Ehm… godlike entity with the mind of a man, remember?"

"I'm starting to wonder how could I become a Writer…" Blake mumbled.

"Remnant can go without your fanfictions of Ninjas of Love, thank you," Phoenix murmured under his breath, unnoticed by everyone. "No matter, I've spoke with the houseowner and he said that there is a spot he cleared from debris and that will be your new watching spot."

"Debris?" asked Ruby.

"Yep, he briefly told me why. This entire fortress is built in the crater of a massive volcano. Active volcano." Everyone looked down in worry. "We will move outside and into the crater. Don't worry, the magma will be several hundreds yards underneath. Unless one of you literally falls off, somehow manages to bypass the barrier the houseowner put underneath just for that, and goes down to take a swim in the lava, none of you should be harmed."

"Well, at least it's something…" grumbled Cardin. "Are you going to teleport us there? We haven't seen any exit from here."

"That's because my friend concealed the doors. Without a Writer's protection, you would probably die out there. The sheer heat would be enough, and that's without talking about the creatures living there." He rubbed his hands together. "And now that I've spooked you into expecting a horrible place, let's go. I'm pretty sure you'll like it. Khor even gave Jaune the permission to fly around the crater, as long as he doesn't fly too low or too high. Come on, we don't have all eternity."

Slowly, the Watchers got up and followed him, passing through several empty halls and corridors before reaching a door they knew hadn't been there before. As it turned out, it led into a giant forge. Everyone was shocked as a myriad of sounds assaulted their ears. They hadn't heard _that?_

"These are Vlakha Naroak's forges. Please don't touch anything, especially the equipment on the wall. It's not yours. Maybe in the future you'll be able to visit this place but as of now, we don't have time," instructed Phoenix.

Cardin, though, had his eyes on a little ash-coloured bottle on a table. The label read 'Hydrofluoric Acid'. _'This is perfect for my little revenge,'_ he thought with a smirk. _'Hydro should mean water so it's probably watered down. Good, I don't want to cause permanent damage to_ _ **her**_ _… just to her freak ears.'_

He pocketed the bottle with a grin and hurried after the others.

After a few more forges, where Yang had to literally drag Ruby to prevent her from running to the exotic weapons on the rackets, they finally found a larger hall, the Atrium. A huge, double door towered over them, but it was enough for Phoenix to push it slightly for it to open. "This is a secondary entrance. The main one is on the roof, and doubles as landing place for visitors. I suggest you don't look down, because while the bridge itself is made of obsidian, there is a chasm of several hundreds yards underneath. Not pleasant, if you are afraid of heights."

True to his words, the black bridge was indeed the less intimidating part of the sight. The crater's wall went up for at least a mile, lit with coals and grey with ashes. Unnoticed by everyone, on each of them's forehead appeared a small sapphire. As they looked back, Vlakha Naroak stood it all its magnificence, a citadel built in the volcano. Its lower levels sank into the lava, heedless to the heat, several hundred yards below. They could see moving shadows down there, apparently the 'creatures' Phoenix mentioned.

Phoenix led them down a narrow path until they reached a flat balcony over the chasm. At first glance, it looked stable enough, and several pillows laid around for them to use or to lay on. The pillows were peculiar, as they looked like to be made out of still burning lava, and yet they also appeared soft. A small fountain stood in the middle, full of fresh water.

The fountain itself was made out of sapphire carved into a rose from which three water spouts poured water into the fountain. The basic itself was had carvings of dragons and phoenixes, for obvious reasons, and was supported by what appeared to be flaming rose branches. The sapphire blossom of the fountain also had green and blue flames surrounding it, and they could see the same flames dancing underwater, as impossible as that might've been.

"You might've noticed that you all are under a hydration enhancement that keeps you from turning into dried shells of people. The heat here is unbelievably high." He gestured to the sapphires on their foreheads, and only then the stones detached and fell off, disappearing into dust. "This fountain will have the same effects on this area. Leave it and… well, you'd be lucky if your Aura resists for more than five minutes. There is a reason the walls look semi-liquefied, that's rock."

Then he gestured to the screen attached to the wall. "That's magic too, so the screen doesn't liquefy from the heat. We'll continue watching the Swordsman from here."

"Why here?" asked Ruby.

Phoenix just shrugged. "I guess Khor was just tired of being the only one to know what's around his fortress. I wasn't the one to make the decision, although I did suggest a few places I'm pretty sure he has in his fortress. And as you can see, those are _my_ flames in the fountain." Then he sat down and conjured up a cup of coffee. "Don't be afraid of drinking hot beverages, though. Here it's just perfect. You don't need to go below zero to enjoy a good coffee."

A few others chose something to eat or drink as well. Just like it worked in the Watching Hall, there too the orders appeared in front of them, on low coffee tables. Everyone sat or laid down, and then screen started up shortly after.

 **Blake and Jaune left the café not long after their little heart to heart. They were walking down the street in a comfortable silence, each feeling a bit better by sharing their burden with someone similar to themselves. They walked for a few more blocks until Jaune decided to speak up. "So, what now?"**

 **Blake was quiet for a second, "You're going to go back to Beacon. The others are worried about you."**

Not even three seconds into the viewing, and already people spoke up. "You know saying that will only make him want to stay more?" Yang asked the cat Faunus.

"It also makes you look like you're about to do something he wouldn't want you to do," Jaune pointed out. "Although if it goes like it went in our universe, then I guess that really wasn't your brightest idea."

"I was... I was too full of mistrust for humans to ask my team for help," she confessed, looking down a bit. "I didn't want to get humans involved."

Cardin sneered. "What did I say? Once a terrorist, always a terrorist," he grumbled. "Mistrust for humanity… last time I checked, the White Fang was the terrorist organization, not humanity."

"Then you're not counting the Blood Fist, the Black Sword or Humanity First," Sun shot back, angry. "People who mistreat, abuse of and even kill Faunus just for the fun of it. Just because of some twisted belief that humanity is better."

"Except that the White Fang is all over the news, while those groups are just small ones!" Cardin growled.

"That's not because of what they do, but alas what they are," Weiss cut in. "If you tried to watch FaunTV, or Menagerie Radio, or any other Faunus channel, you would see that the roles are turned around. Each race accuses the other and covers up what its own organizations have done. Just three days ago… or rather, three days before we were kidnapped… Black Sword's members killed fifteen Faunus in a Faunus clothing store, and set the shop on fire. Nevertheless, it didn't make it to the human channels."

Cardin scowled. "I'm not saying they deserve to die, but neither do humans, and the White Fang is even _applauded_ by Faunus for what they do. If even the daughter of Menagerie's leader joined it in a time of peace, while she could've remained home and be spoiled for the rest of her life, it's obvious the White Fang has support among the Faunus leadership!" As everyone looked at him, he scoffed. "What? You think I didn't know who rules those freaks? 'Belladonna' is not exactly a common name, either."

"The Faunus do not condone what the White Fang has done, but the oppressed will always fight back when possible," Blake retorted angrily. "As well, the Faunus have been oppressed for decades, maybe even centuries. They are snapping, and they are snapping at everyone because it's easier to snap at a race than at the specific ones who did the crime."

Cardin scoffed and crossed his arms. "Animals."

 **"They're worried about you too, Blake. Both of our scrolls going off nonstop proves that. Besides, I have a feeling you're gonna do something crazy and/or stupid. That's my area of expertise, not yours. So I'm staying with you for the foreseeable future."**

 **"Jaune, listen-" Blake tried to convince him, until Jaune cut her off.**

 **"No, you listen, Blake. We left Beacon together and that's how we're going back. No ifs, ands, or buts. Also, Yang and Ruby know I'm with you and it'd be suicide for me to go back without you." He smiled at her, "Face it, you're stuck with me until then."**

 **She stared at him for a bit before she sighed with a small smile. "Looks like I have no choice. I'm not convinced these robberies are caused by the White Fang. They've never needed that much dust before."**

 **"So, your plan is to try and catch the actual criminals behind these robberies to prove the Fang's innocence?" Blake nodded. "Lucky for you that I'm sticking with you then." She turned back to him with a quizzical look. "Yesterday at the park, I overheard some off duty dock workers saying that a huge Schnee Company freighter of dust is coming into the docks today. And I do mean huge. Guarantee that the criminals will be there, it'd be too good to pass up."**

"Strange, last time it was Sun who told me this, why is the Swordsman the one to know?" asked Blake.

Phoenix silently whistled innocently and looked up, avoiding the other's curious gazes.

 **Blake's eyes widened slightly, "Guess we're going back to the docks."**

 **"You sure you don't wanna tell the rest of our teams? I know we can handle ourselves but back up never hurt." Blake gave him a slight glare, Jaune just sighed and shrugged, "Was worth a shot."**

* * *

 **Later that night, the two of them were on a rooftop overlooking the docks. They'd been there for a couple of hours already and Jaune was getting slightly stir crazy. He looked over to Blake to ask her something but stopped when he noticed her. The fragmented moon was shining on her in a way that made her usual mysterious beauty turn into something almost irresistible. Guess she felt his eyes on her because she turned to face him, she was surprised by the look he was giving her, "Jaune, why are you looking at me like that?"**

Most people chuckled at that. Even Ruby, Yang and Pyrrha giggled a bit. Sure, they all had feelings for Jaune but that was a can of worm they would open later, after he had sorted out his feelings, ordered them alphabetically, and realized if he loved them or not.

Sun just gave a wolf whistle and winked at Blake. "Don't worry, Blake, I know you're taken. Just appreciating the view," he said. Blake smiled. Sure, Sun might've been a little silly at times and annoying at others, but he was a good friend and had the heart to allow her space when she needed to.

Phoenix had a different reaction altogether. He chuckled and leaned down to whisper on Jaune's ear. "This is what you're currently missing out on. I'd say it's worth to give it a thought or two, right?" With his usual sleight of hand, the Writer wiped some drool from Jaune's semi-open mouth. "But don't tell my girlfriend I've said this."

 **Jaune quickly looked back at the docks with a slight blush, "Sorry, I didn't mean to stare. You just looked stunning in the moonlight." He didn't notice her blush and look away as well. At that point, the wind started to pick up and a bullhead descended in the middle of the cargo containers. They then saw White Fang members start to file out of the ship and start gathering the dust.**

 **Blake stared wide eyed, "Oh no."**

 **Jaune placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry, Blake. I wish it wasn't the case."**

 **She shook her head slightly, "I think deep down I knew, I just didn't want to believe it." They were interrupted again when they saw Roman Torchwick come out of the bullhead and start to issue commands to the members of the White Fang. "This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a human. Least of all, one like that."**

Cardin was about to say something, but after most Watchers glared at him, he just closed his mouth in silence. It wasn't a perfect solution, far from it, but at least they didn't have to put up with his stupid insults once more.

 **Before Jaune could stop her, she had already drawn Gambol Shroud and jumped off the roof. "Blake! Damn it!" Jaune quickly pulled out his scroll and switched his GPS on and sent an SOS to his team and RWBY. He drew Suikiri with his right hand and followed after her. By the time he got to her, she had Roman at sword point with her bow off and surrounded by the White Fang. The wind picked up again and several bullheads had also shown up. But Jaune's attention was immediately brought back to Roman as he fired at the ground and sent Blake flying. He was about to fire at her again but Jaune managed to use his aura to get between them and created a water wall in front of him. "Dumbass, you shouldn't be sending out explosives around this much dust! Do you have a death wish!?" Jaune got into his combat stance as he stared him down.**

Everyone blinked and Blake nodded slightly. "I… didn't think of that. Torchwick was really incautious back then. If anything had gone wrong…"

"The whole Valean dock area would've been blown up, and the fireworks would've been seen in Atlas," Qrow finished for her. "You'd better remember that, 'cause shooting yourself out of the sky is not so rare of a death cause among Hunters. You wouldn't believe how many idiots kill themselves 'cause they can't handle some fucking Dust."

 **"Thanks for the tip, kid. Get him!" The White Fang members charged Jaune and he met them halfway. They were good with swords but Jaune was a master. He was able to deflect all their attacks and drop them with either the broadside of his sword or by using his water whips to toss them about. Roman growled in annoyance and fired another shot at Jaune. Jaune kicked away another grunt and fired a water blast to counter it. That's when Blake ran past Jaune to start attacking Roman again. Jaune was about to back her up but more White Fang started dropping out of the other bullheads. The numbers were starting to get to him and he was forced on the defensive. He was only able to dodge most of the attacks due to his enhanced reflexes from using water enhanced aura. 'This is bad. I can't use my other swords; I could accidentally set off the dust and any Advance Elements would be just as dangerous. But at this rate, Suikiri is gonna run outta dust.' He then used his Semblance to use the water he had summoned to create miniature waves to push the grunts back slightly. His eyes widen in realization. 'That could work! But I need time to focus!"**

 **Jaune was surrounded by a dozen White Fang now but luckily for him, one of them got hit with a banana peel before he got kicked in the face. The newcomer then backflipped over Jaune and stood behind him with a bo staff, "Sup, Jaune?"**

 **"Sun?!" Jaune said in shock before he slashed at another grunt. "What the hell are you doing here?!"**

 **Sun knocked out a grunt with his staff before answering, "You know, was in the neighborhood! Heard the explosions and it sounded like a fun time!"**

Everyone sweat-dropped and looked at Sun, who just grinned and waved back.

With a sigh, they returned to look at the screen.

 **"You need to reconsider your definition of fun!" Jaune sent a blast of water to knock a few of them away. "Hey, Sun, I'm cashing in that 'you owe me'!"**

 **"What do you need?" he asked still fighting.**

 **"I have a way to wrap this up but I need a few minutes. Think you can keep them off me?"**

 **"No problem!" Sun separated his staff into its gunchuck form before charging forward. Jaune jumped back, he then hed Suikiri horizontally in front of him and placed his hand on the broadside of it. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before focusing his mind and aura. He started to focus his Semblance to manipulate the water around him. He could feel all the water he had summoned so far but he kept pushing his Semblance further, reaching for more. He could feel a slight pull just outside of his senses, he kept pushing, feeling his Semblance reaching its limit. With a grunt of pain, Jaune gave one final push and felt his Semblance connect to a huge mass of water. At that moment, Jaune's now blue aura flared and a massive water spout could be seen right next to the docks. Everyone stared in shock at it. Jaune raised Suikiri with his eyes still closed and the water spout angled towards them all before flying at them. It miraculously stopped barely ten feet from the tip of Suikiri and it shifted into a giant water sphere right above all of them. Jaune opened his eyes and everyone besides him could see that his right eye was glowing a brilliant blue, the ye itself surrounded by blue flames.**

 **Jaune flicked his blade towards Sun and the White Fang he was dealing with. A massive water whip broke away from the sphere and struck at them. The water parted around Sun and slammed the grunts into a container knocking them out instantly. Several more grunts appeared on top of the containers and opened fired on him and Sun. Jaune put his hand in front of him and pointed his sword and Sun, water walls appeared in front of both of them and the water started glowing the same blue as his eye. The water somehow stopped all the bullets inside of it. Sun and the grunts were stunned until Jaune flicked his wrist and sword at the grunts. The water condensed around the bullets and fired back at the Fang members. The bullet reinforced water knocked out the grunts. Jaune walked towards the remaining grunts before turning to Sun, "Thanks, Sun, mind giving Blake a hand?" He nodded dumbly before going to help her. The last dozen or so White Fang looked at Jaune in terror. "Last chance. Surrender or else." To prove his point water tendrils broke off from the main sphere and started whipping near them. They quickly dropped their weapons and raised their hands. Just to be safe, he still had the tendrils knock them out.**

Everyone looked in awe at the Swordsman's Semblance. Phoenix just sighed. "Right now, you see this as something wonderful, don't you?" he rhetorically asked. "But think what would a normal person think."

"Awesome?" offered Ruby.

"Incredible?" added Yang.

"So very overpowered?" Neptune chipped in.

"Fearsome. Scary. So very terrifying," Ironwood corrected. "Such a power would make people fear him to their very cores. Fear creates anger. Anger creates hatred. Hatred creates violence."

"If people were to find out his full capabilities, he would be done for good," finished Phoenix. "Everyone would be after him, either to adore him, recruit him or kill him. He would never have peace any more."

 **He turned back to Roman to see him shoot at a suspended container and it started to fall towards Blake and Sun. Jaune quickly punched the air and simultaneously, a massive water stream shot off from the water sphere and sent it into one of the bullheads, bringing it down. At that time, they heard a familiar voice shout their names and the sound of sniper fire. Jaune turned to see Ruby on a nearby rooftop with the orange haired girl from the other day and he waved. He saw Roman take another shot towards them and Jaune raised his hand in their direction and more water broke off from the water sphere to form a shield for them. As he was doing that, a few more bullheads flew in and started opening fire. Jaune turned the water sphere into a giant water shield above all of them and it started to shine blue to stop the bullets.**

"Well, at least I wasn't taken out so quickly," grumbled Ruby, still sore about that hit.

"I was wondering, though… how is it that Arc there is always the one to do everything?" asked Neptune. Everyone looked at him. "I mean, seriously, ever since we've started to watch this thing, it has always been Arc here and Arc there, Arc up and Arc down, Arc left and Arc right… he does everything! In combat he's a demigod at the very least, academically he's just slightly worse, and then we have the other events!" He pointed at Ruby and Weiss. "During your fight at the start of the year, Arc was too busy being an idiot to help you out. The Swordsman pops out of nowhere and gives you advice." He turned to Cardin. "While you were picking on Arc, he was too weak to fight back and too moronic to ask for help. The Swordsman fights back everything you throw at him." He then turned to Blake. "And then you. You run off, meet Sun, and the two of you fight Torchwick. The Swordsman jumps through a window, meets up with you, the two of you stay in Vale and then fight Torchwick. Miraculously, Sun arrives just in time to help the Swordsman." He then held up his hands and started counting. "Plus during Initiation he basically did everything by himself. In Port's class, he fought instead of Weiss. He's the one who stops Cardin from bullying Velvet. And now he just blocked the shot Ruby should've taken. Really, he seems to do everything!"

"Too bad Jauney Boy is the exact opposite, eheh," Cardin chuckled.

Phoenix just shrugged. "It's an alternative universe. It's not that the Swordsman is doing everything. It's just that with his powers, he has a different attitude. Self-esteem sucks, I know from experience, and that's the main difference between the Swordsman, and our Jaune." He waved a hand in the air. "Sure, power is handy at times, but it's mainly self-esteem. That, and the differences between universes."

"So Jauney Boy just needs some more confidence, uh?" sneered Cardin. _'Well, then I guess I'll add him to the prank. Better not to let his confidence rise too much, right? It's just gonna be more painful when it falls back down!'_

 **Jaune was starting to breath heavily and heard someone land next to him. He turned to see the orange hair girl standing next to him with swords floating around her. "Salutations!" was all she said with a smile.**

"Penny!" exclaimed Ruby.

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow, "Hey. Any chance you can help me with the bullheads?"**

 **She nodded before she hit her chest, "I'm combat ready! You also saved my friend so I am obligated to help." She said with a smile.**

 **Jaune just went with it, "Hey, any friend of Ruby's is alright in my book. Now let's do this!" He raised Suikiri and the water shield broke apart and surrounded the bullheads in a water bubbles He swung his sword toward the edge of the docks and sent them flying into the sea. He missed two of them but Penny was able to bring one down by using a giant laser from her swords and the other with her swords pulling it to the ground. They were about to celebrate until Jaune noticed a bullhead trying to fly away with Roman inside of it. "Get back here!" Jaune shouted and started to swing his sword towards the bullhead. He was intending to bring the bullhead down with the remainder of his water. But halfway through his swing, a massive spike of pain went through his head. It made him drop Suikiri and he stumbled forward. His vision started blurring and he heard people shouting his name along with a large amount of water falling. He saw Blake running to catch him before everything went black.**

* * *

 **Jaune slowly opened his eyes to the sight of a white ceiling. He was lying in a bed and had no idea how he got there. He started sitting up but as he moved slightly, a pain shot through his head and his hand shot up to his head. "Ow, that's an element hangover if I ever had one." Next thing he knew he heard several people shout his name and felt three people jump on top of him. He looked down and saw Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang on top of him, hugging him. He looks around to see Blake and Sun standing on one side of his bed and Weiss on the other side. Along with Ren and Nora a few feet away from his bed. "Where am I?"**

 **Blake was the one to answer, "Beacon's Infirmary. You passed out at the docks and we had no idea what happened. So we brought you here and the doctors said you were fine. But they want to keep you until the morning to make sure."**

 **Jaune groaned slightly before looking down at the girls hugging him, "Can you three get off, please? It's kinda hard to breath." Ruby and Yang gave him pouts but stood up next to their partners. Pyrrha refused to get up though. "Pyrrha?"**

"Uh oh, why do I feel like Jaune just got into _serious_ trouble?" asked Sun.

"It just means your Woman-Rage Radar is working alright," shrugged Phoenix. "The supernatural ability to tell when a woman is pissed off is something blessed by every male and female on Earth."

"Earth? What does soil matter?" asked Ruby.

Phoenix laughed. "Not earth, _Earth_. Uppercase first letter. Like this planet is called Remnant, my home planet is called Earth. Ironic since only twenty-one percent of its total surface is not covered by water. Seas and oceans make up the eighty percent of the surface, I guess it should be called 'Water', not 'Earth'." He chuckled a bit more. "I guess the Woman-Rage Radar is blessed by everyone in the Multiverse."

"That is very sexist," scoffed Winter.

"Of course, excuse me. The Woman-Rage Radar is just one little ability of the vast range of skills usually known as 'empathy'," Phoenix drawled sarcastically. "I am not sexist and I will _not_ tolerate being insulted like that. I abhor any kind of discrimination, be it based on gender, religion, physical traits, beliefs or sexual orientation." He then glanced at Cardin and Neptune. "My dislike for a few people here is not due to discrimination, but rather to my natural dislike for jerks and douchebags."

Winter glared at him for a few more seconds before she sighed and her aggressiveness went away. "Fine. I apologize for having offended you. It was not in my intentions to do so."

 **"You're an idiot." Everyone was shocked by this. "You disappear for two days and when you return you are unconscious. Do you know how worried you made us?" Her voice was shaking slightly and she refused to take her face off of his chest.**

 **Jaune gently returned the hug, "I'm sorry, Pyr. I'm a terrible friend, partner and leader."**

 **She shook her head, "I wouldn't go that far." was all she said before she looks up at him with a small smile. "I'll forgive you this time." She said before she got off of him.**

 **He returned with his own small smile before he started to sit up. His head started to ache again and he groaned, "Definitely an element hangover." He said.**

 **"How do you know what a hangover feels like?" Yang asked jokingly.**

 **"Your Uncle is a bad influence." He replied. He looked over at Sun, "I owe you one, Sun."**

"Yes!" cheered the Faunus.

"Man, what's gotten over you?" asked Neptune.

"Oh, come on, I just got a debt from him!" Sun grinned as he looked around. "A favour from the Swordsman, who's quite possibly on a fast track to become a demigod or something like that!"

 **"Nah, man. We're even. Just call me if you need a hand or just want to hang." He held out his hand and Jaune took it.**

"Awww…" Sun slumped down on his chair, and Helios jumped on his lap to comfort him.

 **"Deal." Jaune said with his usual smile.**

 **Sun gave his own smile before he rested his hands behind his head. "Well, I think I should leave you guys alone. Don't wanna be a third wheel. Or ninth wheel in this case." He chuckled slightly before he left.**

 **There is an uncomfortable silence before Jaune sighed. "I have a lot to make up for." He looked over to Weiss, "I want to apologize, Weiss. I shouldn't have shouted at you like that. I was out of line."**

 **Weiss looked at him in shock before she gave him a softened look, "It's alright, Jaune. I said a lot that I shouldn't have. You set me straight, again, and I hope we can move on from this." She gave him a small smile and then gave the same smile to Blake. They both smiled and nodded.**

 **Jaune looked over at Nora and Ren before he looked done. "Guys, I can't apologize enough. I brought up those memories and reopened those wounds callously. You have every right to be mad at me. But I just want you to know, I'm truly sorry. I would never intentionally want to do that."**

Jaune sighed. "Really, am I fated to mess up in all universes?" he asked to no one.

"Ehm-ehm, if I may," replied Ren. "I'd say you did all but fail, Jaune. Those two large white appendages called 'wings' are the proof of that."

That brought a smile on his face, until someone else decided to disrupt it. And quite brutally, too. Neptune scoffed obnoxiously. "Ren's wrong. If _I_ may, I think your assessment is quite correct." He grinned as he gestured to Phoenix. "After all, no one of us had to have a _God_ offer us a deal in order to get strong and do something right. Phoenix here must pity you so mu-"

He was interrupted by the Writer himself who, with a smile on his face, stepped behind him. He had moved so fast even Ruby had barely seen him. His smile now turning down into a frown, the godlike entity grabbed the back of Neptune's shirt, and threw him in the air.

Right off the edge.

Everyone gasped as the blue-haire… no, sorry, _ash-and-soot-haired_ boy disappeared from view. No one dared to say anything as all eyes were drawn to Phoenix. "I really wanted to do that," he confessed. "Kinda hard to do it in the Watching Hall. Besides, he should be back in two… one… zero."

With a flash of orange flames, a still-screaming Neptune was dropped on over their heads, connecting hard with the ground. Sun quickly checked him over, but aside from the scare he had no wounds.

Phoenix darkly chuckled, and everyone found themselves leaning away from him.

 **There was a silence in the room until Jaune was tackled again, but this time by Nora. He looked down to see her holding onto him tightly. "It's okay, Jaune. We know you didn't mean to hurt us. So, we can forgive you." She looked up at him with her usual smile. "You are our Fearless Leader after all." Jaune was shocked but smiled and hugged Nora close. He gently kissed her on the top of her head and Ren made his way over to hug Jaune as well. After a minute or so, they broke apart.**

 **"So, where'd you guys go after you left?" Yang asked them.**

 **"I paid for a room at a hotel and we stayed there." Jaune said with a shrug.**

 **Yang gave him a teasing smirk, "So, did you guys share a bed?" They all looked at the two of them with looks of curiosity.**

 **Jaune sighed, "No, Yang, I slept on the couch. And before you say anything, we both were dealing with a lot. Emotionally. I thought it'd be best if we didn't sleep in the same bed, in case we did something that we'd regret later."**

 **Everyone understood what he meant and they all nodded. Blake gave Jaune a small smile before Ruby brought up a question, "Jaune? How did you do all that with the water? You've never done that before."**

"Oooh, this is gonna be interesting," oohed Nora. "We get to see more of his Semblance! It's like a videogame! The more we go on, the more powers we get to see!"

"Odd analogy aside, I agree with Ms Valkyrie," noted Goodwitch. "Given how unique is Semblance is, it would be interesting to see his new powers."

 **"Nothing special, Ruby. It was just a part of my Semblance. The more of an element is around me, the more potentially powerful it can be. Earth and air are always around so they are usually very strong. Fire and lightning are usually slightly weaker but I make up for it by learning to create them. Water is by far my most...temperamental element. But because we were at the docks, my water abilities were at their peak. The only problem is the more of an element I use at one time, the more stress is puts on my Semblance and body. I can also send my aura into an element to make it more potent. That's why the water started glowing blue and could stop bullets. I passed out because I reached my limit. And why my head feels like I went ten rounds with Yang." Everyone laughed at that.**

"Okay, is there a limit to how powerful his Semblance can get?" Weiss grumbled, a bit envious.

"Well, if he has no Dust, then he has no powers," Jaune pointed out.

"Weiss is right, the Swordsman's Semblance is indeed powerful," agreed Phoenix. "But think about it: with enough training, your own Semblance could create a literal tornado. Now, which one's the overpowered?"

"A-A tornado?"

"A big, tall, wide, mean freaking tornado," Phoenix grinned as, for a second, the screen showed a EF5 rank tornado destroying a house. Then it went back to the Swordsman. "All you need… is training."

 _'Okay, I_ _ **really**_ _want to train right now…'_

 **They were all quiet for a while. Jaune noticed that Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Pyrrha were sharing looks with one another. Jaune sighed again, "Girls." They looked at him. "If you have something to ask me then you should do it before I doze off again." He said with a smirk.**

 **They looked at each other and Pyrrha spoke up. "Well, Jaune…...you brought up a bit about your past…. And we were wondering…if you could tell us more. If you're up to it that is."**

 **Jaune thought for a second before he looked to Ren and Nora. They looked at each other then nodded before nodding to Jaune. Jaune took a deep breath and pulled his shirt up. Yang and Ruby gasped, seeing his scar for the first time. Pyrrha's mouth opened in shock, she saw it before but never this close. "It all starts with this scar." Jaune then told them all everything that he told Blake. It was a little easier this time with Ren and Nora's support. By the end of it, Pyrrha and Yang were crying, Weiss was trying to hold back her tears but failing and Ruby had her head down.**

 **She went over to Jaune and gently grabbed his shirt sleeve. Jaune looked over to her and she slowly raised her head. He saw her crying, more so than anyone else. "I'm sorry, Jaune." She was shaking. "Yang and I lost our mother too." Everyone looked wide eyed at her, even Yang. Ruby rarely talked about Summer, especially with anyone besides family. "I know that the pain never really leaves but I want you to know, that I know how you feel and I am here for you." Ruby started to losing the little control she had.**

Jaune, who was still side-hugging Blake, felt a tug at his sleeve. Turning, he saw what was probably the cutest and most heartbreaking sight he had ever seen in his entire life. There stood Ruby, with her wide misty eyes looking up at him, her lower lip trembling ever so slightly. He understood immediately.

Moving away from Blake, he allowed Ruby to climb onto his lap and hugged her tightly, as if to ward off any bad memory. Since she wasn't looking at the screen, instead pressing her face into his chest, he unfolded his wings and encircled her with those as well. In a few seconds, Ruby found herself in a safe, warm and comfortable cocoon. She could get used to that treatment.

 **"Ruby." Jaune wrapped his arms around her and she held onto the front of his shirt as she buried her face into his shoulder to finally let go. Jaune looked at Yang for permission and she nodded after a second or two. Jaune pulled Ruby onto the bed and held her close. He moved one hand to the back of her head and slowly started to stroke her hair. "Shhh, it's alright, Ruby. It's alright." Jaune just held her like this and kept repeating those words. He also had a few of his own tears from seeing his best friend hurt so much. Eventually, Ruby calmed down and she fell asleep holding onto Jaune. Yang then took her sister from him.**

 **"Thank you, Jaune. I'm glad she has you as a best friend." She said with a small smile.**

 **Jaune nodded with his own small smile. Everyone decided it was late and started to leave. They wished Jaune a good night and promised to come by in the morning. Everyone left besides Blake. She stood right next to Jaune and smiled at him. "Thank you, Jaune. For everything this weekend. I really needed a friend like you."**

 **Jaune smiled, "No problem, Kitten."**

"Kitten?" repeated Blake, red tinting her cheeks.

"It's better than Blakey," Yang offered helpfully.

"That's not exactly saying much, Yang…"

 **Blake blushed at the nickname, "Kitten?"**

 **Jaune nodded, "Yup. It's your nickname." Blake looked worried until Jaune spoke again. "Don't worry. I'll only call you it when it's just us or when we're with our teams. Unless, you hate it that is."**

 **Blake thought for a second, "I guess it's not terrible." She said still with a blush. "I still want to give you something for what you did."**

 **"Blake, it's fine. You don't need to. I would do it again in a heart-" Jaune was cut off when he felt her hand on his shoulder and her lips on his. Jaune's eyes widened in shock. He wasn't expecting this at all. It was a chaste kiss but it still blew Jaune's mind. It only lasted a few seconds but it felt like years to him. Blake pulled away, looking at him with a gleam in her eyes and that same smile. Jaune didn't say a thing.**

Jaune's jaw dropped somewhere near the lava, several hundreds yards below, as his mind uselessly tried to compute what the actual _hell_ had just happened. In his head, Jeyin just lifted a mini-mug of coffee and cheered weakly. Her job was almost done for Blake.

The cat Faunus was blushing profusely herself, especially when she felt the glares of Yang, Pyrrha, Ruby and for some reason even Weiss. Wasn't she the one who had rejected Jaune all along?!

"Con-gra-tu-la-tion," Pyrrha mechanically said.

"I am _really_ happy for you, _Blake_ ," added Yang, and she managed to make it clear she was _not_ happy. Not at all.

"You are _lucky_ …" Ruby forced out between gritted teeth, making it perfectly known that she would've preferred to have been the lucky one herself.

"I wish you good luck with your _relationship_ ," Weiss stated, although the temperature around them dropped with each word.

Blake glanced at Phoenix, begging for help, but he was just laughing to himself.

 **"I know you aren't emotionally ready for a relationship, Jaune. But I want you to know, I could easily see myself with you and being very happy. So, please. When you're ready, give it a thought." She slowly went to leave and when she was about to go out the door, she turned back around and gave him one last loving smile.**

 **When she left, Jaune collapsed onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling. Trying to comprehend what just happened. Finally, he sighed and closed his eyes. 'Things just got complicated.' Was all he thought before he fell asleep.**

Blake coughed into her fist. "Err… S-See? Nothing came out of it!" She laughed nervously. _Very_ nervously. "Not yet, at least. It's not like I claimed him, right? Eh eh… eh… eh…"

Little by little, the four's glares lessened until someone actually remembered Jaune was still in shock. Ruby gently pinched one of his feathers and pulled it off, the pain sharp enough to wake Jaune up. "Ouch! What the hell, Ruby? What was that for?"

"You were unresponsive," she smiled innocently, sneakily hiding the large feather under her cape. "Besides, it's just a feather…"

"A feather today, one tomorrow, in a few years you'll have taken them all," he childishly pouted. When Ruby giggled, his eyes narrowed. "Oh, this is your game? Fine… let's see how you fare against me…"

Before she could defend herself, Ruby found his hands on her sides, tickling her mercilessly.

They stopped ten minutes later.

"Uff… Ugh… That… That was… tiring…" panted Ruby.

"But… uff… so very… satisfying…" Jaune smiled back.

Phoenix grinned at their little scene. Ruby had been trying too hard to be mature, not knowing that Jaune liked her the way she was. This would've restored the status quo. But it was time for him to leave. "Well guys, as much as I _loved_ hanging out with you, and pulling a couple of pranks-" A few scowled at him. "-I fear my time here is up. I have much to do, plus I can't remain here forever. Just so you know, the spell that brings people back up from being thrown is still there. Throw Cardin, Neptune and Idiotwood for me a few times, okay? Also, I'm leaving Helios with you, treat him well." He stepped over to the edge until he was at the very brink. "This is not a goodbye. Think of it as a… see you later!"

With that, red flames burst from his figure, shaping into a gigantic fire phoenix. With a keen cry, the phoenix descended down into the volcano. Everyone ran to the edge, just in time to see it diving straight into the lava. The disturbance disrupted the lava's already unstable balance, creating a massive lava burst. A column of pure magma shot up, so high it could be seen even from outside the volcano.

When everything calmed down, there was no sign of Phoenix.

 ** _Whoops, Neptune got back up. D'Arvit! (reference to the series Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer, if you haven't caught it.)_**

 ** _So... Cardin's preparing his prank, and his ignorance is going to cost Blake and Jaune quite dearly. Hydrofluoric acid is not watered down acid, it's HF mixed with water. And it's a potent acid that doubles as deadly contact venom. Look it up on Wikipedia if you want. It also damages the nerves so you don't even feel you have acid in your body. It permeate through the skin and reaches the bloodstream, possibly causing cardiac arrest._**

 ** _And the "EF5" is a real scale (the Enhanced Fujita scale) for tornado powers. It has been theorized about the EF6, but no tornado yet have been truly ranked 6. The legendary Tri-State Tornado ranked 5._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	22. Chapter 21

**_And here you are! ;)_**

"Do you think he's okay?" Ruby asked worriedly. "I mean, he just dived into the lava… that's not something people usually do… Or did he teleport away before touching the lava? Or-"

"Knowing of his powers, I think it's safe to guess that we shall see Phoenix again. Soon or not, I cannot say," replied Weiss, calm and collected no more, now just as anxious. But at least she handled the shock better. Jaune, Pyrrha and Sun were still staring down the chasm, blinking from time to time. "He can create and manipulate fire, Ruby. I do not think lava or magma could harm him."

Ruby nodded. "Weiss, what's the difference between lava and magma?" Weiss looked at her. "You said 'lava _or_ magma', so they are two different things. What's the difference?"

Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Magma is lava with gases trapped in it. When it exits the volcano it loses those gases and becomes 'lava'. It's not a perfect explanation but it's a simple one," she said. "I could go into detail about it but I doubt you would understand."

"Hey!"

"Anyway, so what now?" asked Nora, not worried at all. "Do we go on watching the Swordsman?"

"Eh, if that godlike idiot killed himself it's not our problem," snorted Cardin. "I just hope his death won't prevent us from going home when this is over. I'd really like not to remain trapped here forever."

"Students, if I may, I suggest you to look at the screen…" Ozpin said around a sip of coffee. "You might find it interesting." Everyone turned to glance at the screen. Now it sported large white words on it, the message extremely clear.

 _ **I AM FINE, THANK YOU, AND UNHARMED.  
ENJOY THIS NEW VIEWING.  
SIGNED, PHOENIX.**_

Everyone exchanged a glance, and promptly decided that, if taking a swim in the magma hadn't killed him, then probably nothing could. They returned to sit on their couches, but this time Ruby didn't sit on Jaune's lap. Not immediately.

Instead, she was standing in front of him, fidgeting a little, but with determination in her eyes.

Jaune, who had been expecting her to take her rightful seat on his lap, looked up at her. "Err… Ruby? Is something wrong?" he asked. "Why are you-"

"I-I like you," she blurted out, shutting him up. After a second of silence, she continued. "I… I guess it was obvious, wasn't it? You were my first and best friend in Beacon, and I… I kind of always looked up to your kindness and selflessness, and you w-were always there for me. You've never treated me like a child even if I'm two years younger… You always had time for me, and when you didn't you still tried… and I just… f-fell for you, I guess…"

"Ruby, I-"

"I-I know you're still thinking about it. K-Kind of like the Swordsman, but with a different reason, I guess…" she interrupted him with an unsure chuckle. "I-I know you haven't thought a-about it and… I guess you already did but… I just wanted you to know that I-"

Jaune cut her off by hugging her. "Thank you, Ruby. It means a lot," he told her, not breaking the hug as he sat back down with her on his lap. He smiled at her. "I… I just want to ask you to wait a little more. I want you to know I like you back, though. Your cheerfulness, your genuineness… I-I admire your strength too, your _will_ to protect others and your optimism," he added, not bothering to keep his voice down, making her blush crimson. Yang and Pyrrha alike had sad smiles on their faces. Blake felt her heart tighten, but she was happy for Ruby. Even Weiss was a little subdued, but content. "But… I can't say yes, not yet."

Ruby looked up at him with a surprised expression. "What?"

"I… I know you are not the only girl who has feelings for me," he stated bluntly. Neptune choked on his drink. "Even before Phoenix confirmed my suspicions I guessed you weren't the only one, although you were the most open with your feelings." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Yang and Pyrrha, who both looked away in embarrassment. "I… I don't want to hurt others by saying yes. Not yet. I… I need to sort things out better."

Ruby deflated but then she looked at with an inquisitive look. "You said you like me back, right?"

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, but I-" His eyes went owlishly wide as Ruby bolted up, capturing his lips in a kiss. The sheer speed knocked their couch back, and then two fell on the floor, but the Rose didn't really acknowledge the notion. It was just a simple kiss on the lips -especially because she didn't want to go too far-, but it meant the world to her. It was the first kiss she gave and truly meant. She had kissed a boy before, but it had been an awkward affair she hadn't enjoyed, and the relationship itself hadn't lasted much.

The kiss also meant a lot to Jaune. He, just like most people in the room, had kissed before and to be honest, having angelic wings kind of did wonders to his kiss count. But before losing his wings he had been too young to have a serious relationship, and the loss of both his father and his wings hadn't left him in the right state of heart for a relationship. Ruby's kiss was the first one he experienced after the loss of his wings, and the first relationship that had the chance to develop into a serious one.

Ruby detached from him with almost a _pop_. "Well, to quote a certain cat, when you've sorted your thoughts out, at least give me a shot," she smiled at him, silver eyes shining. "If that's okay, I'm fine with waiting as long as you might need."

Jaune stared at her for a long time, trying to process everything at once and rebooting every time. Eventually, he managed to speak. "I-I… I-I t-thought that w-was o-o-obvious…" he said with a shaky grin.

"Better not to leave anything to chance," she replied.

Unbeknownst to them, the screen flashed for a moment, the words _**LANCASTER ACHIEVED**_ appearing for less than a second before it turned black again.

Slowly, piece by piece, bit by bit, second by second, the embarrassment between the two decreased, and they straightened their couch back up. A very unamused Blake, who had jumped out of the couch earlier, took her seat beside Jaune again. While Jaune's mind was still trying to process the kiss, the screen started up.

 **Jaune woke up the next morning still in the infirmary. The doctors checked to make sure he was fine and released him. Jaune made his way to his dorm to change into his uniform and made his way to the cafeteria. He found his team and RWBY and quickly joined them.**

 **"You feeling better, Jaune?" asked Pyrrha as she was looking him over.**

 **Jaune shrugged, "I was fine yesterday. That headache I was having went away not long after you all left. People just like to worry." He said as he was drinking his coffee.**

"So true!" Ozpin, for some reason, shouted. "Holy words! If only everyone thought like you do!"

"Err… Professor?" Blake called out. "Is everything okay?"

Ozpin sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry for my outburst. I was just expressing my relief at seeing that I'm not the only one to think people worry too much about too many things," he apologized quickly. "The Council daily gives me headaches about the safety of my students, and the safety of Vale… Especially they like to argue about how I shouldn't allow certain students into Vale. While there are a few teams in Beacon whose behaviour has been thus far exemplar, unfortunately some people like to abuse of their powers. As such the Council suggested I only allowed students with A- or more in _both_ Etiquette and Conduct to leave the school to visit the city."

"You wouldn't have had to worry either way, as even Ms Valkyrie has a surprising A- in Etiquette, and a well-earned A in Conduct… although I do hope that the answer 'The default response to an attack is to blow up a grenade' won't ever become true," Goodwitch took over, and Nora giggled guiltily. "But, for example, Mr Winchester has a B- in Etiquette and a C in Conduct… as such, he wouldn't have been able to visit Vale, hadn't Ozpin argued with the Council over it."

"And believe me, those people…" The Headmaster closed his eyes in resignation. "They are horrible to argue with. Just horrible. Bureaucrats, politicians… vultures that feed on my headaches, that much is sure."

 **"Well since you're feeling a hundred percent, why don't we go spar before class?" Yang said cheerfully as she slammed her fists together.**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow and smirked at her, "Yang, I just got out of the infirmary. Why are you so hell bound to send me back?"**

 **"Oh please, you're more durable than that. Besides, that would just make it my responsibility to watch over you as you recover." She said with a teasing smile.**

 **Jaune just put his coffee down, "You mean watch me for a few minutes and when no one is around sleep on top of me again." He said with his own teasing smile.**

"He's got you," noted Blake.

"Meh, I'll win next time," Yang replied nonchalantly. "Besides, if I tease I must be ready to be teased back, right?"

"That's only for pussies," huffed Cardin. "I guess you are one, despite all your big talk."

"No Cardin, I'm not a pussy, I _have_ one but that's not for you to see," Yang immediately shot back. "And besides, if being a pussy means I am not a moronic jerk who manages to irritate even a god, then I'm okay with being one."

 **"Well, that was the best nap of my life." She said before everyone started laughing. Jaune smiled afterwards, everything seemed to be back to normal and he couldn't be happier. Although, he did notice Blake looking over her book at him. When they made eye contact, she smiled the same smile from yesterday before returning to her book. That was one thing Jaune didn't know what to do about. He wanted to get closer to Blake before the whole fiasco but now this was closer than he intended. He was flattered that someone like Blake had genuine feelings towards him but he had no idea if he felt the same way. He hadn't even given a thought to dating her or anyone for that matter. But at least, she understood this and gave him time to figure things out. But what was the real problem being his underlying fear about falling in love.**

 **Jaune was roused from his thoughts when he heard someone calling out to him. He turned and was enveloped in a hug. It took him a minute to figure out it was Velvet. Jaune smiled and put one arm around her to return the hug. "Wow, Vel. Didn't realize you two were that close." Said Coco not far behind her. Velvet quickly stepped away with a small blush and muttered a small 'sorry'.**

"Aww, Velvet is so cute when she's embarrassed," cooed Sun, trying to stroke Helios only to find the dog gone from his lap. "What? Where's Helios?" He looked around and smirked.

Helios was currently looking at Winter, puppy eyes turned up to maximum, head tilted to the side and a small whining coming from his mouth. Sun quietly laughed to himself as he noticed that Winter's frosty facade was starting to crack a little. Helios laying his head on her lap didn't help, either.

 **Jaune just waved it off, "No problem, Velvet. I'm used to random hugs." And if to prove a point, Nora jumped onto Jaune's back to give him a hug. "See?" He said with a smile.**

 **Velvet smiled at this and nodded, "Thank you, Jaune. I was just excited to see you. Ruby told me you left Beacon and we were all worried."**

 **Jaune took a look at Ruby, who gave him a sheepish smile in return. "Yeah, Blake and I needed some time away to sort things out. But it all worked out in the end."**

 **Velvet stared wide eyed at him and Coco looked over her sunglasses to look at Jaune then Blake. "So you and the bookworm? Never saw that coming." She said before pushing her glasses into place.**

 **Blake and Jaune blushed slightly before Jaune continued, "Not like that, Coco. We just stayed in the same hotel room. And no. We didn't share the bed; I took the couch." He said before taking another sip of his coffee.**

 **"Oh, quite the gentleman. The woman that you do end up with will be a lucky one." She said before looking sideways at Velvet behind her sunglasses. Everyone else agreed silently inside their heads.**

 _'So very true,'_ sighed Pyrrha.

 _'I guess there is indeed truth in her words…'_ noted Weiss.

 _'Yup! And I've already ensured he'll at least consider me!'_ Ruby cheered, happily snuggling closer to Jaune.

 _'She doesn't know half of it,'_ Blake mumbled gloomily, looking at the young reaper. The younger, and yet the bravest who had taken the shot… she was definitely envious.

 _'Coco, Coco… you are wrong,'_ Yang shook her head in disbelief. _'Really? The 'woman'? Try 'women'… 'cause I don't wanna break Rubes's heart, but as sure as Phoenix I'm not gonna let him go so easily.'_ She then considered her own thoughts. _'Technically Phoenix is a god, so I can use 'as sure as Phoenix'? Or is it offensive?'_

 **Until Jaune sighed, "No woman deserves to be with an emotional wreck like me. Besides, any relationship with me would probably end terribly." He said with the dead neutral voice he used whenever he talked about relationships involving himself. He closed his eyes and drank deeply from his coffee. Coco and Velvet looked at him in shock, they never heard Jaune talk like that before. Meanwhile, everyone else at the table just looked at him sadly. Nora was gonna try and liven up the mood before both Jaune's and Blake's scrolls went off. They both looked to see a message telling them to come to Ozpin's office as soon as they could. The two looked up at each other and nodded. Jaune drank the last of his coffee before standing. "Well, me and Blake were just summoned to Ozpin's office so we'll catch you later." He smiled at them and gently tapped on Nora's arms for her to let go, she did and they left for Ozpin's.**

* * *

 **They were riding up to his office when Jaune spoke up, "Think this is about us tearing up the docks?"**

"More or less," commented Blake. Despite the others' curiosity, she refused to explain further.

 **Blake just looked at him, "I think you tore up the docks more than I did."**

 **"Well excuse me for trying to save you, Kitten." He said and started rubbing her head. Blake started to blush and smacked his hand away. She tried to glare at him but the blush didn't help and Jaune just chuckled. The elevator opened up and the two made their way over to Ozpin's desk. "You wanted to see us, sir?"**

 **Ozpin nodded and gestured to the chairs in front of his desk, "Please, take a seat." The two did and Ozpin just looked at the two of them for a minute. "I was hoping to talk with you two about yesterday night. When you two thwarted that attempted robbery at the docks. I would've preferred to do it yesterday but I didn't want to bother your recovery, Mr. Arc."**

 **Jaune shrugged slightly, "I was fine, sir. I just pushed my Semblance too far. But thank you for the concern." He smiled lightly.**

And then it happened.

"Nnnnngggghhhh…ohmygosh you're so cute!" Everyone turned to Winter in shock, but the white-haired woman just deaf to them. She picked Helios up and set him on her lap, stroking his fur lovingly. "Who is a good boy? You are, yes you are!"

Sun finally started to laugh out loud, while the others just stared at the usually strict Specialist in a mix of shock and amusement. Ironwood was looking at her with just shock. Goodwitch shivered as Helios looked at her with eyes that meant 'her strictness failed her… your sternness will be next'.

 **Ozpin smiled lightly as well before continuing, "As you both know, in order to enroll at this academy, students must first pass a rigorous entrance exam. In most cases." He gave Jaune a sideways glance and he shrugged. "Most applicants spend years of preparation training at one of many combat schools. You are two of the few that did not."**

"Wait, if students have to pass an exam how the hell did Arc enter?" asked Neptune.

Ozpin coughed meaningfully. "As I said I was already aware of Mr Arc's fake transcripts, and furthermore I personally tested him. I just… failed to report his lacking combat skills," he explained with a little smirk, immensely enjoying the expressions on everyone else's faces. "Besides, as soon as I saw his score in the Leadership and Strategy exams, I chose to allow him in."

 **"I was raised outside the Kingdoms. If you can't fight, you can't survive." Blake said and Jaune nodded in agreeance. Neither knew where Ozpin was leading this discussion.**

 **"Well, you two have most certainly survived. I admire that drive. And I'm proud to run a school that accepts individuals from all walks of life. Rich, poor, human, Faunus." Blake and Jaune were taken back by that statement. It sounded as if Ozpin knew Blake's secret. "Why do you wear that bow, Blake? Why hide who you are?"**

Everyone looked at Ozpin, who merely smirked knowingly.

 **"You and a few others may be willing to accept the Faunus, Professor Ozpin, but your species is not." Blake said and Jaune nodded sadly at that while looking down at the ground.**

 **"True, but we are continuing to take strides to lessen the divide." Ozpin responded.**

 **"Not fast enough." Both turned to Jaune, who looked back up at Ozpin. "We both know, Professor, how the bulk of Faunus are treated. And what happens to the unlucky ones." Jaune said this and clenched his fists together, almost painfully.**

 **Blake gave him a sad look before she turned back to Ozpin, "Until that divide is lessened, I'd rather avoid any unnecessary attention. I want people to see me for who I am, not what I am."**

 **"And what are you?" Ozpin questioned.**

 **"I don't understand what you're asking." Blake replied slightly off guard.**

 **"How did you know the White Fang would be at the shipyard yesterday?"**

 **"We didn't." Jaune spoke up again. "We heard that might be where the next dust robbery would be and curiosity got the better of us."**

 **"You wouldn't be the first. But what happened, as you know, is not an isolated incident. I may be your headmaster, but I am also a Huntsman, and it's my sworn duty to protect this world from the forces that conspire against it." Ozpin was cut off when Jaune stood up.**

 **"Are you saying Blake is a threat, sir?" Jaune said trying not to get angry.**

"Is he _threatening_ the Headmaster?" Sun asked incredulously.

"No… or at least, not consciously," replied Goodwitch. "He is just being protective, not realizing that his words might be coming off as menacing."

 **Ozpin just looked at him, "No, Jaune, I'm not. Just making a point. So, Blake, are you sure there is nothing else you two would like to tell me?"**

 **Blake looked over to Jaune before looking back to Ozpin, "I'm sure." And Jaune nodded.**

 **Ozpin nods, "Very well. Thank you for your time, Ms. Belladonna, Mr. Arc. If you two ever need to talk to me. Please, don't hesitate to ask." They nodded and made their way to the elevator. Jaune had a hand on Blake's back in a protective manner. The two exited the elevator and continued with their day.**

* * *

 **The week went by very quickly. Classes were wrapping up and final exams were being taken. It was now Friday and all classes and exams were done and soon the two-week break would be around the corner. Teams JNPR and RWBY were outside enjoying the rest of the day underneath the same tree they usually relaxed under. Jaune was stretched out in the shade, "Oh man, I'm so glad** _ **that**_ **is over. Now we get to relax." Jaune said as he put his left arm behind his head.**

 **"Yup! We deserved this." Yang said before laying almost completely on top of Jaune's left side and cuddled up to him to fall asleep. Blake, was pretty annoyed with this, along with the other girls.**

"Is she going to do that all the time?" Weiss asked, annoyed.

"What? Are you angry 'cause you're not the one doing that?" Yang immediately shot back.

"Please, it's already hard not to murder Arc as it is, don't add anything to the pile," Qrow sighed from his corner. Really, the man was just too quiet for a drunk. "No sleeping on or with boys when I'm around…"

Yang and Ruby alike blushed red at that, but Weiss, Pyrrha and Blake glared at the man for even thinking of harming Jaune.

 **Jaune just sighed and closed his eyes. He was not gonna fight Yang over this, it just wasn't worth it and it was his fault for letting her do it the first time. "Nora, no pictures." Jaune said still with his eyes closed and Nora sadly put her scroll away. Everyone else laughed at this and Yang cuddled up closer to Jaune.**

 **"So, what are everyone's plans for the break? Anyone going home?" Ruby asked everyone.**

 **Jaune cracked open an eye before looking at her, "Ren, Nora and I are staying here. It's that or going back to my family's home. And as much as I love them and all, I feel like they may try to keep us there." He reclosed his eye, Nora and Ren nodded their head in agreeance.**

 **"You never mentioned before that you still contact your family." Blake said.**

 **Jaune kept his eyes closed but explained, "Mother, thought it'd be a good idea for me to keep in contact and I'm so glad I listened to her. It wasn't like I hated them, I just couldn't take the overprotectiveness. I call them at least once a week to let them know what's going on. Besides, they've at least gotten better with giving me my independence. They've pretty much adopted Ren and Nora, at this point too." He said with a smile.**

"And that reminds me," said Jaune. "I'll have to introduce you to _my_ family soon. I'm sure they'll love you."

"The guys who gave someone psychological trauma for being a bitch to your sister's ex?" asked Sun.

"The guys whose meaning of 'meet my daughter's boyfriend or girlfriend' somehow turned into 'third degree interrogation with the option of torture'?" added Blake.

"The family who has a girl who has slightly murderous-y vibes?" completed Yang.

"Yep," Jaune nodded happily. "Ciel is also the one who pile-drove a girl for having cheated on me, she's the eldest. And Jinn, one of the youngest three, is the one who likes to toy with acids, mixing them to find out if they get stronger or weaker. She melted Ciel's weapon once, it had to be reforged all over again…"

"I'm sure your family will _love_ your friends, Mr Arc," Ozpin grinned behind his mug. "I'm not too sure about the other way around…"

Jaune looked down at Ruby. "Amor makes cookies that are to die for," he added.

"Is a bad thing the fact I'm seriously not sure whether those cookies are really deadly or not?" Weiss voiced her concerns aloud.

"A little bit of Decay Dust can't ruin the flavour, right?" Jaune grinned with a gleam in his eyes. "But yeah, I agree… I prefer to use cyanide."

"D-Decay Dust?" Ruby repeated, a bit shocked.

"Cyanide?" Yang repeated, just as shocked.

"Decay Dust is an extremely unstable type of Dust my twin sister Luna found out one day while searching for the right kind of Dust to use on Ciel's ex," he explained. "And I think cyanide adds to the cookies the _kick_ they need."

"Yeah… the _kick_ as in _kick the bucket_!" Yang exclaimed, pale as Weiss.

Qrow couldn't help a little snicker. "Well girls, turns out your little angel was a Fallen Angel instead…" he joked lightly.

 _'Well, everyone knows Fallen Angels are ten times as romantic and sexy as normal angels…'_ everyone else thought, and some really meant it.

Jaune waved a hand in the air. "That's only if you look at the negative sides. Luna uses Decay Dust to turn organic waste into humus. Ciel, after pile-driving the bitch, also saved her from the Grimm and took care of her for three days as they were trapped in the forest by the Grimm. Jinn's acids are used in many ways that are not lethal, and everyone is actually a good person."

"Then why did you tell us only the negative sides?!" exclaimed Weiss.

"Oh well…" he chuckled. "Your faces were priceless."

 **They all smiled at that, even the 'sleeping' Yang. Blake spoke up next, "I'm staying here as well. Not really anywhere for me to go."**

 **"I'm staying, as well. I'd rather not spend my break at home." Weiss said coldly.**

 **"I was going to go home but, apparently, Grimm are acting up in Mistral. So, I'm stuck here for the time being." Pyrrha said but didn't exactly sound sad about that.**

 **"Well, me and Yang were going to head home but since the rest of you are staying, we might as well too! Right, Yang?" Ruby said and waited for Yang to respond but she didn't. "Yang?"**

 **Jaune opened his eyes and looked down at her. She wasn't faking to be asleep this time. "She actually fell asleep." He told everyone. He was about to shift slightly but Yang just pulled him closer and gave a happy sigh. Jaune sighed as well but his was slightly annoyed, "Aren't people supposed to be easier to deal with when they're sleeping?" Jaune asked and everyone laughed again.**

 **"Oh, I just got a great idea! Let's have a sleepover!" Ruby shouted.**

"Just like that?" Cardin sneered. "Out of the blue?"

"Well, they were talking about sleeping people and a sleepover is a gathering where people all sleep together, so it is a kind of related subject," Neptune pointed out.

"Nerd."

"Intellectual!"

 **"Yeah! That's a great idea!" Nora shouted as well.**

 **Yang groaned slightly and pulled the two of them closer together. "Guys, quieter, unless you wanna disturb Yang. I'm all for that idea but we are having it in our room. I still don't trust those death traps you call bunk beds." Jaune said.**

 **"They're fine, no one's been hurt." Ruby said somewhat annoyed.**

 **"Yet." Jaune said and Ruby gave him an annoyed pout.**

"Why don't you trust me?!" Ruby exclaimed, annoyed as well.

"Because I have experience with a similar mistake," he replied calmly. "And my sister nearly lost an eye when the bed collapsed. She was lucky she had her Aura, or else…"

"But we all have Auras!" the redhead countered.

"Is it a good reason to tempt fate?" he retorted. "'Cause I don't think it is."

 **"I think it's also a good idea." Pyrrha said excitedly.**

 **"It would be an enjoyable time." Ren added.**

 **Blake and Weiss agreed as well. "Great. Let's get ourselves snacks, drinks and get a few movies as well. This is gonna be awesome!" Ruby said and they all got up to get the supplies.**

 **"Uh, guys? What am I supposed to do?" Jaune said pointing at Yang.**

 **"You're fine. Just meet up with us when she wakes up." Ruby said as they walked away.**

"Did you just leave Jaune with _Yang_ , alone, and so close?" Blake whispered to Ruby.

"I don't know what she's doing," she replied quietly. "But that girl is not a Ruby Rose."

 **Jaune sighed again and looked down at Yang. She looked so at peace, so he decided he shouldn't wake her. He took his left arm out from behind his head and replaced it with his right. He then put his left arm around Yang and decided to follow her lead.**

 **Jaune woke up a couple hours later. The sun was just starting to set. He looked down and found that Yang was completely on top of him now. He looked at her with a small smile. "I don't know if you're more beautiful when you're sleeping or not." He said as he started stroking her hair.**

 **"I didn't know you felt that way, Hero." said Yang as she slowly opened her eyes and looked at him.**

"Gotcha!"

"Yang, please, calm down…"

 **Jaune froze slightly, "How long have you been awake?" he asked nervously.**

 **"Not long. Probably a minute or so before you." she said.**

 **"Okay. Could you get off of me now?"**

 **"No." she said seriously and Jaune got nervous. Very nervous. "I told you before, no one touches my hair." She moved up him, she put her arms on either side of his head and now they were face to face. "I think I need to punish you now." Jaune gulped at this. "Or maybe I can let this slide? I mean you are the best friend that Ruby has ever had and you did protect my partner. Those are two very good reasons to not hurt you." She moved her hands to gently grasp his face and Jaune was just staring at her. He didn't know what to do. "Maybe I should reward you?" Her face started to move down towards Jaune's and he could now feel her breath on his lips. "If this is too much, just say so and I'll stop." She said sympathetically.**

Everyone looked at Jaune, who was semi-frozen in shock. Ruby blew Yang a raspberry. "My kiss froze him more than yours," she boasted.

"Mine still hasn't even happened yet. Just you wait!" replied the blonde, not even bothering to keep their voices down, much to Jaune's embarrassment.

 **He looked up into her eyes, he could see that she was serious. If he didn't want this she would stop. He just had to say it, but he didn't. For some reason he couldn't, he didn't want her to stop. She nodded slightly and started to lower her head again. Their lips were only and inch apart now.**

 **"What is going on here?" Yang stopped and both their eyes went wide. They looked to see Blake standing there looking annoyed.**

 **"Damn, Blake, you've got the worst timing." Yang said before getting off of him. Jaune slowly stood up and looked at the two.**

 **"Yang, I told you what happened in the infirmary so why would you do this?" Blake said very annoyed.**

"Uuuuuhhhh… this isn't gonna be pretty," Nora sighed. "Not pretty at all…"

"Well, I can guess," Blake stated, annoyed. "I mean, I tell her I've kissed him and immediately she goes and tries to kiss him as well! Of course that pisses me off!"

"I didn't see you arguing when _Ruby_ kissed him for real," Yang rebutted angrily.

"Well, for once Ruby has something called _super speed_ , and secondly this is a different matter altogether. We know what Phoenix told us while our other selves don't, so you were really trying to steal him!" shouted Blake.

"How can I steal someone who's not even yours?!" Yang shouted back.

Jaune blinked as he looked at them before looking down at Ruby and sighing. "Yeah, as you can see, it's pretty obvious you're not the only one with feelings for me," he commented as he shook his head in disapproval. Then he turned back to the arguing girls. "Now, please, stop! I'm not worth arguing over, and I don't even want to imagine _why_ you were arguing about something happening or happened in _another damn universe_. Calm down, hug and make up."

Grudgingly, the two partners did as they were told.

 **"I was curious as to how good his kiss was. It wasn't going to mean anything." Yang defended. Jaune was slightly hurt by what she said. But he knew she was lying. He saw it in her eyes, she may harmlessly tease him but he could see that she genuinely wanted to kiss him. And he was more shocked now, realizing that he wanted it too.**

Everyone fell silent and looked at Jaune.

For once, someone actually helped him out instead of taking amusement from his pain. "Students, please." Ozpin swirled the coffee in his mug once. "As Mr Arc just noted, we are watching another universe. Do not assume everything is identical to our own."

 **The three made their way back to the dorm. Blake and Yang were still arguing. Jaune however was still deep in thought. Trying to wrap his head around what just happened. The two of them went into their dorm and Jaune opened his door a crack before saying, "Is everyone decent in here?"**

 **The door was then opened by Nora, "Yup!" Jaune looked in to see his team, Ruby and Weiss were in their pajamas. "So, Blake woke you and Yang up?"**

 **Jaune looked away slightly, "Kinda." He made his way into the room then grabbed his pajamas and went into the bathroom to change. He splashed water onto his face before quickly changing. He put on his shorts but forgot his tank top. He threw his clothes into the clothes hamper and then opened the door. He found that now Yang and Blake were also there in their pajamas. They all looked at him and girls blushed slightly.**

 **"Why don't you have a shirt on!?" Weiss asked frantically.**

 **Jaune just shrugged and went to his dresser. "I forgot to grab it. Besides, you've all seen me topless before so what's the big deal?" He put his shirt on and they continued with their sleepover. Jaune was thankful for the good time and that he could distract himself from his thoughts of Blake and Yang.**

Blake wasn't the only one who wanted to see Jaune without a shirt. All five of the girls wanted to. Younger or not, fifteen was by _far_ old enough to have such thoughts. Such, and further. So yeah even Ruby, although at the moment she was happy with just being so close to him.

That was the moment tragedy struck, or rather imbecile struck, or rather Cardin struck.

Just after the ending of the viewing, just as everyone was distracted. The perfect time for his 'prank'.

He quickly used some Fire Dust from his mace to heat up a kettle full of water. Then he added some Lightning Dust from Neptune's own weapon. Theoretically, the added electricity would've overloaded their nerves for more pain. Yes, Cardin Winchester had never really studied Physics, or Chemistry for all that mattered. He sucked in those subjects.

Just as the water began to boil, he poured the hydrofluoric acid into the highly-electrified water.

He was an utter idiot.

Hydrofluoric acid's reaction to water was not something he had studied, and even then it was probably too complex for him to understand. But hydrofluoric acid's reaction to _electricity_ … was much more interesting. As well as _water's_ reaction to high electricity.

To put it simply, both liquids were de-assembled by the electricity. All hydrogen -positively charged- gathered on the negative pole, while all fluorine and oxygen -negatively charged- gathered on the positive one. All three of them in their naturally-found forms… gas.

The process was not an instantaneous one, so Cardin actually had the time to see the gases begin to form. Thinking the whole kettle was about to explode -that wasn't far from the truth, to be honest- he just tossed it away from himself. Fortunately for his prank, he had been facing his targets. Unfortunately for his targets, and in the end for him as well, said targets hadn't been expecting an attack, and thus their Auras weren't active.

The kettle did not explode, in the end. It merely poured its highly-acid, boiling hot, highly-electrified contents onto Jaune, Blake, and Ruby, who was still sitting on Jaune's lap.

Fortunately for Ruby, Jaune was hit first, and thus actually had the reflex of pushing her down and covering her with his left wing. His right one tried to unfold to cover Blake as well, but some of the liquid still hit the back of her head.

Aura kicking in a second later, the two of them screamed only once from the pain, and then turned to glare at Cardin, who merely put up his hands. "I-I didn't do it on purpose, I swear!" he lied. Fortunately for him, the others were too busy checking over Jaune and Blake to pay too much attention, so for the moment his lie was unheeded. "I just wanted to make myself a coffee to keep myself awake since… uh… i-it's been a long time since I last slept!"

He was temporarily ignored. Temporarily.

"I-I… I-I'm so s-sorry…" Ruby sniffled as she examined Jaune's left wing. It was charred a bit by the Fire Dust still in the water, but Aura seemed not able to heal it. It could just be taking some time, but to Ruby she had been the cause his wing had been damaged. He had taken the hit for her, so to speak. "I-I s-should've t-t-t-taken that…"

Jaune winced as his left wing, part of his back, part of his right wing and the back of his head and neck flared up. "I… you don't have anything to be sorry about, Ruby," he replied after a second. "I would do it again in a heartbeat. Besides, this stuff would've hit your face hadn't I blocked it, and that's a worse injury than just my wing. Although I do wonder why my Aura isn't healing it…"

"There are only two possible explanation. One is that whatever water Cardin used, it's suppressing your Aura like Aura Pierce rounds," Ren spoke up. "The other is that your Aura is already working on healing yourself on a level you aren't aware of, and currently can't focus on that as that is the minor injury of the two."

Jaune picked up the kettle and examined it. "I don't think it was Aura Pierce D-" He halted himself and sniffed once, his senses used to detect that particular smell. After all, that was one of Jinn's favourite 'ingredients' for her acid mixes. "Cardin, since when you drink coffee with Lightning Dust, Fire Dust and most of all, _acid?_ "

Cardin paled and stepped back. "I… what? I-I don't know what you're talking about…"

Nora leapt over the couch and picked up the discarded bottle, reading the label out loud. "Hydrofluoric acid, concentrated. pH [1mM]: 3.27." She looked at Cardin with a glare that would've had Goodwitch cowering. "You threw at them what's basically the most dangerous acid in the whole world?" she hissed furiously.

Cardin tried to back off. "I… it's watered down! Hydro! Hydro means water! It's watered down!"

"YOU ABSOLUTELY MISERABLY IMBECILE!" Weiss roared. Every fibre of her body wanted to just throw Cardin into the lava, and _not_ have him come back up. But every second was a second Blake but most of all Jaune were at risk. "Hydro stands for Hydrogen! Hydrofluoric acid is a solution in water of Hydrogen and Fluorine!"

She took an Ice Dust crystal from her pocket and was about to try and at least soothe the burn until they knew what to do, but Jaune grabbed her hand. "No, stay away, I think I got this," he said, pushing even Ruby off his lap. "Sorry but I need to take a bath in the fountain. Don't drink from it afterwards," he gave them a light smile before grabbing Blake and tossing the both of them in the fountain.

When they emerged, all their injuries had healed, and hopefully the acid had been stopped. Ruby was about to ask how, but Jaune beat her to it, pointing at the bottom of the pool. "Phoenix's flames. Green and blue. Those are the same he used while 'sparring' with me. I'm not sure which one of the two does it, but they have healing powers! Green flames are the ones he used to give me back my wings!"

Weiss sighed in relief as the two stepped out of the fountain. And then everyone turned to Cardin with expression that could only be classified as murderous. Even Neptune, who disliked Jaune, seemed ready to take his head off.

"H-Hey hey! I didn't know!" he exclaimed, backing away until he found himself on the edge. "It was a mistake! I didn't know!"

Pyrrha opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, but before she could red flames like they had never seen before _erupted_ from the volcano and landed like a meteor in the middle of the room. The bright fire burned high for a second before it slowly began to die down. After the raging inferno subsided, a familiar yet unknown man was standing in the middle of the Watching spot.

He looked to be around twenty in age, almost as tall as Jaune -around six feet in height- and with light brown hair tied back at the base of his head. He had a black mask that covered his upper face, with glass tinted red for the eyes, but he took it off immediately to stare Cardin down. His dark red Aura continued to flare around him like fire even after the flames had extinguished, and his brown eyes had specks of crimson in them glowing just like his Aura. He seemed to have a scar over his mouth, starting above the middle of his upper lip and ending just right of the lower one. He was wearing what appeared to be a simple dark grey hoodie, the hood up but loose enough to allow them to see him perfectly. Black pants and black boots were paired with a red belt and a silver chain criss-crossing his waist, and ten shortswords hung from said belt, five on each side. Those black shortswords had dark grey accents, and were shaped like a combat dagger, with the blades converging into the handle and no crossguard, much like the feathers of a Nevermore, and just as sharp. His armour was composed of knee-high greaves and bracers that extended up to his elbows, and covered the back of his hands. A single pauldron sat on his shoulder, and carved into it there was a black flame with two black feathered wings sprouting from it.

He was Zeke Phoenix, one of the alternative versions of Phoenix himself, and native of Remnant.

He didn't look pleased.

At all.

 ** _Newsflash, really..._**

 ** _Phoenix is NOT back. But maybe Cardin would've wished for the Writer himself instead of an alternative version of him. Zeke Phoenix is a creation of LordHellPhoenix, so hats off to him. I'm just writing him in my story._**

 ** _Anyway, as you can see Cardin's prank didn't do much. I DID add the detail of the flames, eheh. And the details about the acid are true, I looked it up just ten minutes ago. Although since they have Aura, I'm not sure how it would've acted on the long run. Oh well, no one of you would've wanted 'the long run'. I was actually torn between ending this WITHOUT Jaune and Blake taking a swim into the fountain, and leave you all hanging, but then I looked at An Extension of the Soul Chapter 3, and I remember what is it like to leave you hanging with something like a possible character deaht or maiming._**

 ** _*shiver* Scary readers..._**

 ** _Anyway! I hope you enjoyed this. As for Jaune's family, they are so adorable, don't you think? And yes, I agree with Yang, cyanide does give you that kick you need. You need to die, of course._**

 ** _Also, for the ones who will hate Cardin: yes, you can hate him, but most 17-year-old boys who probably had combat classes at school instead of Physics and Chemistry (both high school subjects, and they never went to high school), so he honestly didn't know. This doesn't make him innocent, but he wouldn't have used hydrofluoric acid, had he known its true effects._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	23. Chapter 22

**_Just... just one warning. The ending of this chapter will be an emotional cliffhanger and... writing it had a huge emotional impact on me. I re-lived things I never wanted to live again and... let's just say that for the first time in a long time, I cried. So please... just try to enjoy what you can. There won't be any AN at the end. Khor._**

The man, Zeke, stared Cardin down with a cold and unblinking glare, the specks of crimson in his eyes glowing with barely contained rage. His gaze remained on the bully for the longest time, before it slowly panned over to Jaune and Blake. "Are you two okay?"

With Blake still in shock -and utterly unamused- at having been thrown into the water, it fell on Jaune to reply. "Y-Yeah… The wounds are healed so I guess the poison of the acid is gone too…" he stated insecurely, running a hand through his hair as he tried to calm himself down. "Thankfully Phoenix put some healing fire in this fountain, or we would've needed immediate medical treatment, and I don't think there is a medic nearby."

A red blur shot over and hugged Jaune tightly, crying even more, but now out of relief. She had been so terrified when Jaune had mentioned the acid, even more so when Nora had read the label of the bottle. She turned her head slightly to the side and glanced at Zeke. "Make him pay," she mouthed silently, her silver eyes unusually full of anger.

Zeke gained a slightly sadistic grin at that. "I plan to, Little One." His eyes shifted over to Cardin once again as his right hand dropped down to the handle of one of his many blades. "I suggest you pick up your weapon. We don't want this to be a slaughter, do we?"

Cardin whimpered in terror. "I-I didn't know! I-I swear, I d-didn't know!", he cried, stepping back. "I-I didn't want t-to kill them, i-i-it was just a-a-a prank! I s-s-swear!"

He looked at the others for help, but every single one of them was glaring at him with varying degrees of disgust, hatred, fury and disappointment. Looking back at Zeke, he took out his mace with shaky hands and whimpered again.

"You're lucky it's me and not Phoenix himself, he'd make your suffering much more painful." He drew two of his Feathers and the blades deployed to a length of two feet. "But I'll be sure to do my best."

Cardin whimpered a third time as he tried to keep as much space as he could between himself and the furious man. Despite knowing he wasn't facing a godlike Writer, he wasn't stupid enough to believe he had a chance. His mace hovered before him in a clumsy and desperate defensive stance. "P-Please, I-I didn't want to hurt a-anyone seriously!"

"Do you know how many murderers and rapists have tried using that excuse?!" shouted Zeke, his voice holding pure rage and distilled venom. "Better question: do you know how many of them have won against me?" With that, the ground around the man began to slowly ignite.

"I don't know! I didn't know! I've never been good at Chemistry!" By then Cardin's face was stained with tears. "I just wanted to prank Belladonna! I swear, I didn't think it could've been dangerous! She has Aura!" He was shaking so badly his armour rattled and he almost dropped his mace.

Ozpin sighed as he stepped in, heedless of the fire, and placed a hand on Zeke's shoulder. "As his Headmaster, I have to ask you not to kill him," he said, although his eyes only held contempt as he looked at the trembling boy. "Despite his actions, he is still not even an adult."  
The entire volcano seemed to be asking for Cardin's blood, the walls trembling as if during an earthquake, springs of magma opening in the rock, and the magma underneath rumbling as it rose. Nonetheless, the decision was up to Zeke.

"Don't worry, I won't kill him. I only want one man's blood and he isn't him." Releasing fire from his feet he cleared the distance his right sword clashing against Cardin's mace, pushing him back several feet. "Show me your repentance through our fight or be consumed by the flames of vengeance."

With a terrified yelp, Cardin came to a stop near the edge. Seeing no other choice but to fight, he took a shaky breath and charged the man. Cardin lead with a power swing, which Zeke took a step backwards to avoid it. He quickly slashed at his chest with a swing equal in strength and speed. He delivered two more before Cardin tried for a back swing. Zeke weaved underneath it before standing tall and connecting a roundhouse kick to his neck, sending him tumbling a few feet.

When he stopped, Cardin slammed his mace onto the ground to send a series of explosions towards the Writer's alternate self. Zeke channelled fire around his left blade before he swung his sword, sending an arc of flames to intercept it, creating a pillar of flames. Many stared in awe, especially Cardin who was now on one knee. Just then, Zeke jumped through the flames, unaffected by them or by the heat. With a shout, he came down with both his blades. Cardin had the sense to raise his mace and catch them with its shaft. He then stood up and pushed him off and away from him.

The boy then brought down a two-handed swing, which Zeke caught by crossing his blades. Remembering what his alternate did in a previous viewing, Cardin released a point-blank explosion. The explosion expanded just before it rapidly condensed to everyone's shock. The newly-created fireball lingered between Zeke's blades as he kicked the mace user in the chest to create space.

Zeke then fired the fireball at Cardin's feet, sending him off the edge and down into the lava. Zeke quickly condensed his blades and reattached them to his belt before grabbing his chain from his waist. He turned his head to see the orange flames appear once again and Cardin fall from them with a scream. Zeke whipped his chain out and it wrapped around his waist, pulling the bully towards him for a foot before he hit the ground. Cardin flew towards the pyromancer before he pulled the chain over his shoulder, sending Cardin into the air once again. Zeke pulled down on the chain, bringing the orange haired idiot into the ground hard enough to break the ground and leave a small crater. Everyone knew he was alive from the groan that escaped his body.

Without as much as another glance toward the fallen bully, Zeke turned to the Watchers, specifically five of them. "I may not be a Writer like Phoenix is, but coming here I've been told a few things about what's happening in here," he said, looking at the five girls with a sigh. "I wouldn't wait around forever, ladies. Love is a precious thing and to lose it is painful. Especially depending on what takes it away. To make this simple: stop thinking about everything that could go wrong and just accept your feelings before you lose your chance."

Zeke turned to Helios and just nodded. The dog ran over the edge and jumped into the volcano, much to the shock and worry of the Watchers. A blast of violet flames after, though, the felt the terrace of rock they were on shake as something huge anchored itself to it.

Everyone, Ozpin included, shrieked as a gigantic black dragon reared his head over the edge. His head alone was larger than a car, and the body behind it was slightly shorter than a plane from head to tail. The massive creature had a single flame-like bone ridge starting on the top of his head and going down his back. Huge claws scratched the rocks as he held himself up without using his giant leathery wings, and they could see a red glow coming off from under his scales. His enormous maw opened to reveal the rows of deadly fangs, each as long as Ruby's forearm. Without even giving them time to shout out, his jaws darted down and his long tongue wrapped around Cardin, tossing him up in the air. He screamed only for a second before the giant dragon closed his jaws, swallowing him whole. Looking back at the Watcher, he burped loudly.

Zeke grinned as the dragon turned to him and petted the large scaly head. "Good boy," he nodded approvingly. Then the red flames from earlier reappeared and the man dived into the volcano once again, disappearing just like he had appeared.

"D-Did a d-d-dragon just-?"

"Y-Yes, Ms R-Rose, it appears s-so," replied Ozpin, shaking slightly but unsheathing his cane. The dragon huffed a laugh as he pointed at the screen with his snout. The Watchers glanced behind them, not wanting to take their eyes off him for too much, but they froze when they saw the screen.

 _ **THE DRAGON IS HELIOS. HE TURNS INTO DRAGON WHEN HE'S REALLY PISSED. AND YES, HE DID JUST EAT THAT MORON. DON'T WORRY, HE'S NOT DEAD. JUST TERRIFIED OUT OF HIS MIND.  
NOW PLEASE, TAKE YOUR SEATS, THE VIEWING IS ABOUT TO START.  
PS: JAUNE, GOOD THINKING, THE FOUNTAIN IS INDEED ENHANCED TO HEAL ANYONE ITS WATER COMES IN CONTACT WITH. AND IT'S STILL SAFE TO DRINK IT, THE ACID HASN'T POISONED IT.**_

Everyone exchanged glances before returning to look at the dragon, who somehow managed to pull off puppy eyes even with reptilian eyes. Then he got a firm hold on the rock and laid his large head on the ground, whining softly.

Yang was the first one to break out of her trance and walk over to pet him. When everyone else looked at her as if she had just grown a second head, she just shrugged. "What? I always wanted a pet dragon."

Slowly, they all returned to their pillow seats. A few were still worried about Cardin, but the message onscreen made it clear that they should've been worried. Ruby sat back on Jaune's lap, still feeling guilty for earlier but not nearly enough to renounce to the privilege she had snatched for herself.

 **Jaune woke up late the next morning. He checked his scroll and saw it was ten in the morning. Made sense though, they all stayed up into the early hours of the morning just hanging out and watching movies. He looked around and saw everyone pretty much sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor. Jaune thought it'd be unfair for the girls of RWBY to sleep on the floor by themselves, so his team agreed to do the same. He looked and saw that Nora was hugging Ren tightly in their sleep but that wasn't outside the norm. He did see that Pyrrha had grabbed Ruby and was practically spooning her. Jaune chuckled, Pyrrha must have clung onto Ruby instead of her pillow in the middle of the night. Ruby didn't seem bothered though, she seemed to enjoy being held. He kept looking and saw that Weiss and Blake were in their own sleeping bags still sleeping peacefully. He then looked down and saw that Yang was cuddling up to him. He smiled at first but then the memories from the day before came back to him and his face turned into a troubled expression.**

"Oooh, I thought you two liked Jaune, not each other!" exclaimed Nora, pointing at the two other redheads. "Wow, yuri scene!"

"Yu-what?" asked Sun, confused, while Ruby pressed her face into Jaune's chest and Pyrrha turned as red as her sash. "Also, I'm pretty sure they are just heavy cuddlers. Jaune's in for cuddle hell -or heaven- on your next sleepover…"

"Oh, he already had Ruby and Pyrrha on him on our last one! Plus Yang was attached to Ruby so he basically had Yang too!" confided Nora, laughing like a maniac while the three of them blushed. "And yuri is… Yuri! You know, girl on girl!"

"Please, please, please I _beg_ you," Qrow wailed from his corner. "Avoid _that topic_ when it comes to my nieces…"

"Besides, you should be worried about Jaune and Ren taking showers together to spare the hot water for you girls," Blake pointed out, and all of Team RWBY inwardly sighed in envy. Being four girls, of which one with long hair and two with _very_ long hair, made it difficult to handle the hot water. "After all, yaoi is hot."

Jaune coughed into his fist. "I have nothing against Ren but please Blake, could you avoid trying to get Nora kill me?"

Although Nora appeared more interested in learning the reason _why_ Ren's cheeks had turned pink.

 **He carefully untangled Yang from himself and got dressed. He quietly exited his room and just started to walk around. He needed somewhere to just process yesterday properly. But where? 'I would prefer the rooftop but Pyrrha knows that's my usual spot. The edge of the forest is out because Weiss will find me there. The library would be good but that's Blake's domain.' He sighed when he was done with his thoughts. He found himself in front of one of the empty classrooms. He looked at it for a second before shrugging. 'No one will expect me to be there.'**

"Aww, and which is _my_ spot?" mumbled Ruby, unhappy to be the only one beside Yang not to have a spot with Jaune.

"The forge," almost everyone reply.

 _ **JAUNE'S LAP**_ , the screen flashed for a second.

Blushing cutely, she decided that maybe she preferred the spots she already had over a rooftop, a library or a forest. Besides, if Jaune's lap was her spot, he could go anywhere he wanted to go and it would still bring her place along. She wisely decided she had gotten the best spot.

 **He opened the door and sat in one of the seats at the top row, that way he'd know if someone came in. He took a deep breath and reached into his pocket and pulled out a lightning dust crystal. Gin had always made him carry a dust crystal at all times he didn't have his swords on him, just in case he needed to defend himself. He smiled lightly before absorbing a small amount of energy from the crystal. He then returned it to his pocket before he put his foot on the edge of the table and leaned his chair back onto its hind legs. He held his hands out, not far from his chest with his palms facing each other. He then took a deep breath and started to send his lightning enhanced aura quickly between his two hands. He made it go faster and faster until the air ionized and lightning was discharging from on hand to the other. He would send it from his right hand to his left and then send it back to his right, he kept this up reflexively. He found this helped him think. He closed his eyes and started thinking.**

Many sweat-dropped at the Swordsman's way of _passing time_. "Okay, of all the uses I've seen so far of his Semblance, that's the weirdest," stated Neptune, frowning in disbelief. "I mean, seriously? Playing with lightning?"

"At least he ain't playing with fire," Yang joked with a wink. Despite the joke not being as awful as her puns, still no one laughed.

"Can I do that, Renny?" asked Nora. "My Semblance should be able to do that! I want to do that!"

"We'll try your Semblance lat-"

Before Ren could finish the sentence, Nora drew a Lightning Dust crystal from her pocket and crushed it with her hand, releasing the energy. She was unaffected -even if loaded up-, and then she put her hands like the Swordsman and grinned. "Three, two, one, go!" she exclaimed as she focused the electricity on her palms.

A lightning storm later, everyone -with wonderfully spiky hair- deadpanned at her. "Attempt number one, a success!" she claimed cheerfully. "Needing more experimentation!"

 **'Alright. So, Yang. Was she serious yesterday? That's the question…. Well, let's think this through. Yang has always been a harmless tease, that's just what Yang does. That's what we do around each other, tease one another but no one gets hurt. So, it would make sense that she was just teasing me again yesterday, right?' Jaune felt a pang in his chest from that. 'But, that seems beyond what Yang would do. She knows how I am, so she wouldn't do that because she would know I'm still hurting. Right?'**

 **He sighed in frustration. 'Let's think of this from another angle. The only other thing I could think of is that Yang has developed feelings for me. But that's crazy, right? Or is it? I mean she did give me two reasons yesterday. But was she telling me the truth?' he shook his head slightly. 'No, stop that. Yang isn't a liar. But she did tell Blake she was just curious and the kiss wouldn't mean anything.' Another pang of pain went through his chest. 'Would she do that? Use me to sate her curiosity?' He moved his head upwards and leaned his chair back more so that he was facing the ceiling. 'I just don't think so. She has a good heart. At least that's the impression I got. Plus, there was that look in her eyes. She was slightly worried; she would've stopped if I wasn't comfortable with it. Or did I just imagine that? I'm just talking in circles at this point. The only thing I can do is talk to her.'**

"Eh, heart matters are always hard to figure out," sighed Sun.

"Not like you have a lot of experience," quipped Neptune.

"I did just get over Blake 'cause, you know, the whole Arc being my competitor thing?" Sun shrugged as Blake and Jaune blushed. "It's a heart matter."

 **He sighed again before actually speaking out loud. "Although, that could just bring up something that we don't need to. Could also hurt our relationship. Maybe, I should just distance myself a bit for a while?"**

 **"Distance yourself from who?" Jaune's eyes snapped open and he looked to see Yang still in her pajamas in the doorway. The sudden movement almost made him lose his balance but he managed to correct himself. Although because of that, he lost focus and the electricity between his hands discharged outward, causing his chair to tip over. He hit his head on the floor and groaned in pain. "Wow, smooth." She said while trying not to laugh.**

"Ditto," grinned Yang.

 **He just gave her a glare. Before he stood up and dusted himself off. "Why are you here?" He asked. He'd usually return with some joke but he was already frustrated. He was confused enough and now she was here, when he needed space.**

 **She noticed this but continued, "When you got up you woke me. I was gonna go back to sleep but when you left, you seemed like something was bothering you. So I followed." She walked into the classroom. "Wanna talk about it?"**

 **He thought for a second before he decided not to. He shook his head, "No. I'm fine. Why don't you go check on everyone? I'll head to the common room and make us brunch." He started walking past her to leave and get space but Yang grabbed his arm.**

 **"The others are fine. You're the one I'm worried about. So, talk to me." She seemed genuine and that just made Jaune more confused and frustrated.**

 **"I'm fine." He said again with as much finality behind it as he could but Yang didn't let go.**

 **"You keep saying that but I know you aren't." She said stubbornly.**

 **Jaune gave a frustrated growl, "And what makes you an expert on me?" He said slightly heated.**

 **She responded with just as much heat, "Because you're my friend, damn it. Now you're not going anywhere until you talk to me." She tightened her grip on his arm.**

"That isn't going to be pretty," sighed Ironwood.

"Hey, I'll let you know I'm _always_ pretty!" exclaimed Yang.

 **Jaune had enough. He spun around and smacked her hand off of him. "You're my problem!" She looked stunned at him and he continued. "We were fine but then you had to go and try to kiss me yesterday!" She got a look of understanding on her face and then looked angry but Jaune cut her off before she could talk. "I know we tease each other Yang but that was going too far. After all that talk about understanding the pain I've been going through, I thought you'd understand that doing that was crossing the line."**

 **"So you think I did that just to tease you?!" She shouted at him.**

 **"Either that or you actually have feelings for me but I doubt that." He looked away with a hurt expression his face. "I think your words were, 'I was curious. It wouldn't mean anything.' Right?" He looked at her and Yang saw the pain in his eyes. "Is that all that would've been? Just curiosity? Is that all it is?"**

 **Yang calmed down immediately and slowly reached out to Jaune, "Jaune, no, that's not it."**

 **Jaune took a step back, "I'm confused enough with Blake. So, why? Why would you just add more on top of it?" He turned away from her so he missed the pain she had in her eyes. "I need some space, Yang. Please respect that." He started to walk away slowly until he felt her arms wrap around him and her head laying on his shoulder. "This isn't space."**

"The understatement of the century," Neptune muttered under his breath, trying not to be heard by the others.

"I'm surprised by how well you are taking this, Ms Xiao Long," commented Goodwitch. "I thought you would've been hurt by that."

Yang shrugged hesitantly. "Yeah? I mean… I'm still a little shaken from the dragon thing earlier, but most of all…" She shrugged again, helplessly. "It's another universe. I'm just trying not to project what happens onscreen on myself. It's not exactly 'healthy', especially since it made Jaune feel like we preferred the Swordsman over him." That still hurt. "So I'm just trying to… detach myself to what goes on there. For my sake."

Goodwitch smiled a small smile. "Good thinking, Ms Xiao Long."

 **"I'm sorry, Jaune. I didn't think you'd take it like that. I didn't mean to confuse and hurt you." She took a deep breath before she continued, "The truth is, I wasn't teasing you and I wasn't just curious. I wanted to kiss you because I wanted to show you my feelings."**

 **Jaune stiffened at that and his eyes widened, "Yang, if this is a joke, it's not funny." He said in disbelief.**

 **He felt her shake her head. "It's not a joke, Jaune. I'm serious." She slowly turned him around and he saw the honesty in her eyes and the small tears. "I think it started before initiation. I thought at first it was just a little thing but the day we had our first fight I realized all the good qualities you have. I realized I fell for you but I knew that you weren't ready to know my feelings." She looked down slightly, "I started to spend more time with you because I wanted to spend as much time with you as I could. To know you better and find the the right time to tell you." She leaned her forehead onto his chest. "But, after I found out Bake kissed you…...I was afraid." Her voice started shaking. "I've never felt this way about anyone before and the thought of losing you before I even had the chance to show you how I felt was too much." She started to shake.**

 **"Yang." Jaune said and held her close, slowly stroking her hair. After hearing her words, he realized how much she cared for him and he hated himself for making her cry. Yang should never cry. "I'm sorry, Yang. I didn't know. Finding out that Blake had feelings for me was a shock already. Even the possibility that you did too was just too much. I mean, why would a guy like me get the attention of two of the most gorgeous women at Beacon." He said genuinely to try to make her feel better.**

"Should I start listing the reasons?" Yang joked, trying to keep herself from getting too emotional. Sure, her reasons to like were slightly different than her alternative self's, but she was sure she'd make a pretty long list.

"I'm pretty sure I don't want to hear the abysmally short list, eheh…" Jaune chuckled, and everyone looked at him. It sounded like there was more behind it. Maybe it was because they had just heard the Swordsman put himself down as well, but there was something that just didn't sit well with them.

"Jaune-"

"I suggest you handle this kind of discussion outside the viewing, please," Ozpin interjected, meeting Yang's eyes. "It's better not to have to split focus between the discussion and the screen."

 _'Damn that screen, I'd focus only on Jaune!'_ protested Yang, but remained silent.

 **She stopped shaking. "Why, Jaune?" He looked at her confused. "Why do you hold so much hate for yourself?" She looked up and him with tears still in her eyes and it pulled at his heartstrings. "You are the best guy I have ever met. You aren't scum, so why do you see yourself that way?"**

 **He looked away and gave a small sigh before looking back at her, "Because I've done so much wrong, Yang. I hurt my family when I ran away, I've killed people. I even hurt the people closest to me. Nora and Ren a while ago. Now you. I failed to protect two of the most important people in my life." He looked down. "No matter how much good I do, no matter how strong I become. It's never enough."**

Everyone shot a second glance at their knight, who seemed to have lost the light in his eyes. Alternative universe or not, apparently their two selves did share some traits. Yang tried to speak once again, but Ozpin cleared his throat and slowly shook his head. The message was clear. _Not now_.

 **Yang moved her hands to his shoulders and he looked back at her. "Is that the problem? You're afraid that if you fall in love, that person will be taken away from you again?" Jaune's eyes widened and he slowly nodded. "Jaune, we all have those fears. Even me. But if you let that fear control you, you'll just always be alone and in pain. Is that what Gin and Amber would want?"**

 **He slowly closed his eyes to try to stop the tears that were forming and slowly shook his head. "I know. But, just the thought of losing any of you guys. It's too much. Even if I'm unsure how I feel at this point, losing any of you just scares me to death."**

 **Yang cupped both of his cheeks and he opened his eyes again. "That's how everyone feels, Jaune. No one wants to lose the people they care for. You've been unlucky enough to experience that pain twice now. But, you need to trust in yourself as much as we do. And give us some credit, we aren't helpless." She gave him a half smile that he returned. "Do you trust me?"**

 **Jaune didn't even have to think, "With my life."**

 **"Then trust me now." She started to move their faces closer. He didn't stop her. He felt their lips meet in a chaste kiss. It was different from the one with Blake but he pushed that thought out of his head. For the time being, he was with Yang. It lasted for a few seconds before they pulled apart. "Was that so hard?" She asked with a small smile.**

 **"No. It was kinda simple." He smiled and she smiled in return. He then moved one of his hands underneath her chin and raised her head slightly. He brought his head down to kissed her. Her eyes widened before they closed and she returned the kiss. This one lasted a bit longer before they separated.**

 **"What was that for?" Yang asked.**

 **"Just a thank you. For helping me and for putting up with me." She smiled and he continued, "I hope you understand though. I'm still not sure how I feel. About anything. I'm not asking you to wait but I don't wanna give you a rushed answer."**

 **She nodded, "I understand. Just don't keep me waiting too long, Hero." She said with her usual teasing smile.**

Yang smiled and looked at Jaune. For a second, she thought about kissing him as well, but then remembered the look on his face earlier. She needed to clear that up before she could make the next step. She understood Ruby's decision, but she also thought that maybe the little crimsonette should've waited a bit longer. "Go me," she grinned, limiting herself to a mere comment.

Pyrrha sighed as she glanced longingly at the boy. _'Why can't I just bring myself to do it?'_ she asked herself. _'Ruby may be impulsive and genuine but she's still two years younger than me… Why don't_ _ **I**_ _have the will to do that?'_

 **Jaune just smiled back at her, "Thank you, Sun Fire." That's when both their scrolls went off. Ruby and Pyrrha were both wondering where they were. Jaune just sent them a message saying to meet in the common room for brunch. "Well, let's go before they get there." He started making his way back and Yang was following him. "Um, I don't wanna make this sound weird but could we keep this between us? Just for the time being?" He looked over to Yang and she nodded.**

 **"Absolutely." She started walking in front of him. "Wouldn't want the other girls to know about those heavenly lips of yours." She said that and Jaune blushed, not sure if she was teasing him this time or not. He noticed she was walking with more sway in her hips than normal. She turned to catch him with a knowing smile, "My eyes are up here." He blushed more after that. She turned around with a small giggle and he just sighed.**

 **'This is gonna be thing from now on.' He thought but found that he was somewhat okay with this.**

Yang grinned and glanced at Jaune again to see if he too had gazed her hips onscreen, but she soon learned that living with seven sisters plus two or three mothers had made him _extremely_ resistant to lust. Not to sexual teasing, but to lust? Yep.

Ozpin cleared his throat again. "Ms Xiao Long, I do believe this would be a good time to speak up," he noted lightly.

Yang was nervous as she turned to Jaune, who was now looking at her. "It's just… I've noticed that you, similarly to the Swordsman, often make comments to put yourself down and… the worst thing is that you _mean_ them." Jaune looked surprised, and then his expression turned pained. "I… why? Just… why do you do it?"

Jaune's eyes fell down to the ground as he gently moved Ruby from his lap and went to sit on the edge of the terrace, his legs swinging over the chasm and a giant black dragon beside him. "My… view of myself isn't exactly high," he told them, and Yang could swear his voice trembled. "Nothing was wrong until…" He gestured to his wings. "… _that_ happened. But then…"

He took a shuddering sigh. "I… everything was just so dark… I couldn't do anything, I couldn't even manage to ask for help…" His voice broke and he had to pause. Hugging himself, he refused to look at them and instead looked at the magma far underneath them. "I was so helpless, so useless, so impotent… I was nothing. While you… you are all so amazing. All of you have suffered in your own ways yet you've always marched through. I mourned for too long and then it was too late. I… how could any of you like someone like me? I'm just a loser, a freak, a-a failure a-and…"

"Jaune, you are not any of that!" exclaimed Blake, standing up. "You went through something incredibly traumatic and no one could help you out of it. It's not your fault! You are not a failure or a freak!"

Jaune chuckled weakly, and the sound just made their hearts bleed. He sounded just so broken… He wasn't his former cheerful self, nor his serene one, and not even his darker one. He sounded like someone who desperately needed help. He sounded so sad and alone…

"I-I am… I failed everyone… I failed my family… I failed my father… I failed _myself_ … I failed _you_ …" He lifted his right hand and pulled down the sleeve. They all gasped when they saw his forearm, usually covered by his sleeve or bracers. Dozens of whitened scars criss-crossed the skin, creating a fine web-like net. They were thin, but most of them seemed to have been drawn by a shaky hand. When he looked at them, everyone felt their heart ache. His eyes were just so sad, brimming with tears he didn't allow himself to cry, and his voice was so utterly wretched and broken.

"Why me?" he sobbed miserably. "I've always been afraid of the dark… why did my life had to turn into a nightmare?"


	24. Chapter 23

_**And here I am. Nothing much to say except that my brother is truly trying to ruin my life and I have a new poll on my profile.**_

Everyone was frozen by the revelation. Neptune took a step back in shock and disgust, while Sun, Goodwitch and Winter looked at Jaune with pity. Qrow's eyes just looked pained as he moved his gaze away from him, and Ironwood and Ozpin held compassion in their stares. Even Helios, still in dragon form, whined sympathetically at him. But that wasn't what Jaune saw first.

He first noticed his friends' expressions.

In their eyes, he saw heartbreak.

In their eyes, he saw sorrow.

In their eyes, he saw compassion.

In their eyes, he saw sympathy.

In their eyes, he saw understanding.

In their eyes, he saw care.

In their eyes, he saw love.

It was too much. He… he couldn't understand. They had all seen his scars, and there was no doubting what had happened. And yet, he couldn't see anything of what he had expected. Their eyes, although misty with pain and tears, were clear of what he was _sure_ he would've found. And they were shaking for heartbreak, not out of horror or disgust. The horror had washed over them, he knew, but… it hadn't been able to hold onto them. They weren't horrified by him. Probably by what had happened to him, but not by him.

In their eyes, he didn't see disgust.

In their eyes, he didn't see shock.

In their eyes, he didn't see pity.

In their eyes, he didn't see contempt.

In their eyes, he didn't see horror.

In their eyes, he didn't see spite.

In their eyes, he didn't see hatred.

In their eyes…

Why? Why weren't they judging him, spiting him, or even just pitying him? Why were they supportive? It… it didn't make any sense. How? How could they not hate him? How could they not judge him? He… he had done something horrible, something unspeakable, and they… they… they were just going to accept him? That wasn't possible. He… how could they accept him? He was a freak, a failure, a… a…

"J-Jaune?" Ruby spoke up, her voice low and shaking just like her. In her eyes there were tears mirroring his own. _'There come the disgust,'_ grimly stated his mind, and he looked away, at the volcano, at the magma, at anything, just to avoid looking at her. Of all people, Ruby was one of the only ones he couldn't bear to see despising him. "D-Do you… do you want a-a hug?"

Jaune's eyes snapped back to her. A… hug? W-Why? How? Why wasn't she horrified by him? How could she ignore what he had _done_ to himself? Everyone looked at self harm and condemned it without looking any deeper. Why wasn't she doing the same? How could she have a look of _understanding_? That… that wasn't what should've happened. She should've shunned him, despised him, maybe even tried to push him over the edge of the rocky terrace. Why wasn't she?

He went stone still when he felt Ruby's small arms encircle his torso, and her small frame pressing against him. She pressed her crying face into his chest, but he could still feel shivers and sobs wrecking her body. "I'm not leaving you," she stated softly, her words almost going unheard by the boy. "Not now, not ever."

She looked up and met his eyes, silver into blue. "It's okay, it wasn't your fault," she softly told him, her voice hacking with sobs and heavy with tears. "You can cry."

He… what? Why was she telling him he could cry? He… he couldn't understand. Some of his confusion had to have shown by his face, because Ruby clarified her words. "You can let it out. I'm here. You can let it all out," she said quietly. "You can let it out."

Her words were now clearer but… how was he supposed to do that? Never mind that he didn't _deserve_ that honour, he didn't even know how he could do that. There was so much… so much he could cry for. Should he have started for his father? For his wings? For his pain as a whole? For his misery? For what? For the entirety of the previous three years?

But that didn't matter. He didn't deserve to cry. He was a freak and a failure. He was a cutter. The word brought bile to his mouth and shame to his heart. He was self harm. He would be branded for life, and nothing would change that. He would have to forever hide his scars in shame, because if someone were to ever see them, he would be shunned and hated. Condemned for being desperate. He condemned himself because in his darkest hours he had taken a darker path. But how could he have taken the lit path? It had just laid beyond his reach, and he hadn't had a choice. He had turned to the knife hoping for peace. And peace he had found, for those brief moments in the middle of the night, hidden away from everyone's eyes and judgement. But it had been a peace with a price. A peace that, eventually, had branded and damned him for life.

He had taken the darker path and his scars would be forever reminders of how he failed, of how he hadn't been strong enough. Of how he would never be. His arm involuntarily twitched. Not all those scars were old. _'It was not their fault,'_ he told himself, but that wasn't completely true. They hadn't driven him to self harm willingly, but indirectly. They were so much better than him in just about everything, how was he supposed to feel deserving? He wasn't. He was unworthy of even standing near them, much less being their friend. And so the knife, or rather the sword, his most trusted friend and most hated enemy, had comforted him during the long nights at Beacon.

Some of those scars were just a few weeks old.

Some were from just a few viewings earlier, healed by his Aura.

He closed his eyes and turned his head, avoiding Ruby's direction. He wouldn't. He couldn't. He did not deserve to be comforted by someone as amazing as her. He felt a hand falling on his shoulder, and opened his eyes. Blake was there, looking at him with understanding. Again, he turned away, trying to avoid looking into Ruby's endless silver or Blake's soft amber, but this time impossible blue met bright lavender, and another hand fell on his shoulder. He stiffened when his eyes met Pyrrha's kind emerald and Weiss's strong ice. He felt a tap on his nose and looked up to find Nora's transparent water and Ren's calming magenta.

All his friends were there. All his friends were there _for him_. His mind was in overdrive, he couldn't think right. All his friends, with no exception, accepted him and understood him. That… how? And then they gave their answers.

"To cope with my mother's death," said Ruby, pulling her neckline down -maybe too much- and showing him several white scars on her chest.

"To cope with my father's expectations," stated Weiss, opening her jacket and lifting her shirt to reveal a few scars on her stomach.

"To cope with the racism, and then Adam's violence," explained Blake, pulling off her bow and pointing to a few small cuts in her cat ears.

"To bear the burden of growing my sister," said Yang, pulling her shirt up almost to her breasts, showing many white lines on her upper stomach.

"To remember my family," was all Ren stated, taking off his jacket and shirt and showing the carving of a lotus on his back. "Always."

"To forget of the hunger and the cold," even Nora chipped in, revealing her chest up to the breasts, showing a few scars on it.

"To hold onto the idea of being a person," Pyrrha was last, her voice low as she took off her tiara and showed a single line on her forehead.

The other Watchers froze, Qrow and Winter especially, but no one more than Jaune. Ozpin himself, the always unflappable headmaster, had allowed his mug to slip from his slack fingers and crash to the ground. Ironwood couldn't bear to look at anyone. Goodwitch looked utterly horrified at having missed such emotional and physical scarring. Qrow was holding his mouth and stomach, trying not to vomit everything he had in his body. The news of his nieces had hit him the hardest, but he had come to appreciate all those students, and knowing that all of them had gone through so much made him sick. Winter was shocked by the revelation, but the surprise soon gave way to unbridled fury toward her father for having pressured Weiss so much. Neptune was regretting his advances on Weiss, looking at all of them with wide and disgusted eyes. Sun was, like Qrow, trying not to lose his lunch in chunks at the news of his friends having gone through so much.

And Jaune… he was frozen. They… they…

He couldn't even finish the thought.

A few were surprised when he shot up and tackled them all to the ground, but not many. He hugged them tightly as tears finally flowed, and he was not the only one to cry. They all cried together and they all supported each other, despite no one of them being actually strong enough to support their own burden. On their own, they were crushed by their pain. All together, they could handle it. It was harsh, difficult and unsure, but they could do it.

One by one, they stopped crying.

One by one, they got up.

The last two were Jaune and Ruby, who had landed under him. They stared at each other until she blushed, and then Jaune realized something he hadn't felt in years. He felt hunger. Not normal hunger. As his eyes roved over her form, taking in everything of her, from her beautiful features to her soft curves, he felt hungry of her. She had already confessed him her feelings, so he felt justified when he leaned down and captured her lips in a searing kiss while his hands moved on their own.

Ruby yelped into his mouth when she felt him take her breasts into his hands. They fit perfectly in his grip. She idly noticed the others move to intervene, so she raised a hand to stop them. She knew she wasn't ready for it, but she knew that she wouldn't regret it. Maybe she wouldn't do it again until she felt ready, but it was with Jaune. Even if they ended up breaking up in the future, he would still be her friend. She wouldn't regret it.

She wasn't ready. But after all, if the world never cared about people's readiness, why would she get that privilege?

Helios growled as other Watchers stood, and pushed himself between the couple and the others, leaving them to their act. Only Jaune and Ruby themselves had a say in it, and they had made their decisions. Despite the recent training, Ruby was still more skilled than Jaune and she could push him off anytime. The black dragon growled, fire forming in his throat, as he forced the others to stand back.

/-/

When the dragon moved again, they were already done with… whatever they had done. Judging by their blushes, prominent but not almighty, they hadn't gone all the way. Probably just a few minutes of touching and making out. Yang and Qrow breathed out sighs of relief in unison at the revelation, even though Ozpin seemed slightly irked at that, for some reasons. Maybe he was a secret romance admirer like Sun? Well, Sun wasn't so secretive about it…

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked Jaune, who nodded. "Did you…?"

"No," he shook his head, blushing some more. "I don't know what got over me, and Yang if you say I'm in heat I'm throwing you off the edge, but we kept it more…"

"Family friendly?" grinned Yang.

Jaune coughed and looked away. "Y-Yeah, kind of…"

To interrupt the awkwardness, Helios gave a retching noise -making Yang immediately look at Jaune, who raised his hands- before he lowered his head to the ground and puked something out. Or rather, someone. Ozpin himself when to check on a very shocked and terrified Cardin Winchester. The dragon then dry-heaved and whined, laying his head on the ground.

Winter almost immediately ran over. "Aww, your tummy aches?" she asked, concerned, as the dragon slowly returned into dog form with a wildfire of violet flames. She cuddled Helios's canine head on her lap. "Aww, all that douche-baggery made you sick? Aww, come here, Winnie is going to take care of that. Here's a treat to get rid of the bad taste!" She held out a hand and out of thin air a cooked and spiced chicken breast popped out. Helios gave her a doggish grin and panted happily before digging in.

Everyone looked at her in shock.

"Well…" Ozpin coughed into his palm, but was promptly interrupted when Qrow stomped past him, heading for the students. Jaune shrank slightly at the Huntsman's deadly serious expression, but everyone blinked when he just held out a tray with eight shot glasses filled to the brim with Valean Vodka. Clear. In his other hand he held a large beer mug filled with the same drink.

"Drink," he ordered, and everyone took a glass. He flicked the tray in the chasm, where the orange flames teleported it back up on Cardin's head, the hit waking him up. "I'm sorry for not noticing, but this stops now. Drink."

He tossed his head back and drank the whole thing, despite it being basically half an entire bottle, without batting an eyelid at the strong burn. They too tried to down their shots in one gulp, but as soon as they did a powerful fire spread in their throats, forcing them to cough pathetically. Qrow chuckled a little before going back to his seat. "Whelp, that was fun to do."

"I thought you were going to help them," Goodwitch raised an eyebrow.

Qrow shrugged as the screen started up. "Only freaks and injured needs help," he replied quietly. "They are healthy, and they are not freaks. They are just people with burdens. Sharing their burdens with the others helped them stand them. I can do no more if not accepting them."

Goodwitch smiled at his words. "So there is a wise man under all that alcohol?". Qrow just shrugged again.

 **Teams JNPR and RWBY were sitting in the common room of the dorms. They had all just finished their brunch and were just enjoying the company of each other. Besides Ruby and Pyrrha, they were trying to convince Nora to delete the picture she took of them sleeping together. Jaune just chuckled at this, he knew tht was a losing battle. Nora very rarely deleted pictures she deemed as cute but he enjoyed it nonetheless.**

A few smiled at Nora's antics. They were like a breath of fresh air.

 _Snap_.

Nora held up her Scroll with a grin. "I like that habit," she told everyone as she showed Ren a picture of Ruby sitting on Jaune's lap. "I'm gonna become a photographer! I'll take pics of everyone of us!"

"And suddenly it's much less endearing," sighed Goodwitch. "Ms Valkyrie, I do plead you to restrain yourself."

"Nope!"

 **"So, any plans for today?" Jaune asked the table as a whole.**

 **"Not really. I was probably gonna chill. That is unless you wanna go a few rounds, Hero." Yang said to Jaune with a smile.**

 **Jaune just sighed before giving her a small grin. "Why do you wanna break my face so much?" Yang just shrugged at that and Jaune just drank his coffee. He still felt a little weird about one of his closest friends feeling for him like that but it was better than him second guessing Yang's intentions. Although, there was still the slight awkwardness on his end.**

"There's always awkwardness around me," Jaune waved it off nonchalantly, the mood starting to get up again. The scars on his wrists still stung, but it was a burn that was decreasing, and the presence around him of all his friends -feelings or not- soothed the pain further. As long as they understood, he could allow himself to joke and be serene. "I'm the King of Awkwardness."

"Then it makes sense you and I like each other, I'm the Queen of Awkwardness," Ruby blushed bright red.

Blake cleared her throat. "Maybe it's time for a joint reign," she told herself. "A King and two Queens… Uhm… nah. I'm having Jaune cosplay as ninja." Fortunately she had been talking low, so no one heard her, not even the Faunus.

"I'd prefer having him wear a knightly armour," Pyrrha whispered beside her.

"I'd prefer having him wear nothing at all," Yang whispered from the other side.

Apparently, she hadn't been as quiet as she had thought. Although Yang's idea was intriguing as well.

 **"Actually, that might be a good idea, Jaune?" Pyrrha brought up.**

 **He looked over to her, "What? Breaking my face?" He gave her a smirk and she slapped him in the shoulder.**

 **"No, sparring. We might as well take the opportunity to have you use your full potential with so little students still here for break."**

 **Jaune thought for a second, "That I could get behind. But, you three pretty much now all my moves at this point. Besides, we should work on our teamwork. We've been neglecting it as of late."**

 **"I got it!" Ruby shouted and raised her hand. "What if we have a team match? Team RWBY against Team JNPR!" She said excitedly and everyone looked at her for a second.**

 **"Now that's something I can get behind!" Yang shouted in just as much excitement.**

 **"It would be good to improve our team dynamics." Weiss added.**

 **"I have to qualms with this." Blake said putting down her book. And with that all the members of RWBY were excited for this match.**

 **Jaune thought for a second. He was very interested in this idea. "What do you say guys?" He said with a grin.**

 **"Absolutely! Let's kick butt!" Nora shouted.**

 **"It would be a nice change of pace from our usual routine." Pyrrha added cheerfully.**

 **Ren nodded, "It would be a good learning experience."**

 **Jaune just turned to Ruby and stood, "Ruby Rose! I, Jaune Arc, leader of Team JNPR challenge your team to a match!" Jaune said with a serious look as he was staring down Ruby.**

 **Ruby returned the glare and stood on her chair to stare at Jaune in the eyes, "We accept your challenge!" She said in just a serious tone. The two leaders stared at each other until the two of them grinned and laughed. Once they got themselves under control Jaune spoke again.**

"Jaune Soleil of Arc!" exclaimed Ruby, leaping off Jaune's lap and staring him down, reversing the roles. "I, Ruby of the Roses, queen of the… the… the _queendom_ of RWBY, declare war to your lands!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "'Queendom'? Seriously, Gemshine?"

While Ruby was reduced from haughty leader to blushing mess by the nickname, Weiss stepped in. "Actually, while I'm sure Ruby has used it without knowing of this, 'queendom' is indeed a word. Just like 'kingdom' is the 'domain of the king', 'queendom' is the 'domain of the queen', thus a land reigned by a female monarch," she explained lordly, appearing more of a queen than the crimsonette. "Although… you have just been declared war to, Sir Knight, shouldn't you respond in kind?"

The 'Sir Knight' looked at the 'Queen of RWBY', who still had a blush on her cheeks, and his eyebrow rose further. Then he shrugged and played along, standing up and majestically spreading his wings, towering over Ruby. "You dare challenge the rule of the Angelic Empire? Then you shall suffer the punishment of the Seraphs! To arms, my loyalmost knights!"

Jaune turned to Nora. "Nora of the Valkyries, the Wielder of the Thunderhammer! Rise and defend your lord's honour!" The girl shot up with Maghnild at the ready. "Ren of the Lie Clan, the Deathly Silence! Rise to defeat our enemies!" In an uncharacteristic display of playing-along, Ren leapt to his feet as well. "Pyrrha Nike, our Invincible Goddess! Strike down whoever stands in our path!" Pyrrha hopped up too, Milo and Akoúo held in combat stance.

Ruby paled and raised her hands. "Wow, down down down! I was just joking!"

"Us too," smiled Jaune as everyone flopped back down, except for Nora who looked around, vainly searching for someone still up to SMASH with Maghnild.

 **"Alright. You all go change. I'll get my gear and set everything up in the sparring rooms." Everyone agreed and they went their separate ways. Jaune grabbed his armor and swords. He made sure that the servos and handles were still working properly before he made his way to the sparring room. He went to the controls to one of the larger rings and started to set up all the safety measures. He was just about finished when everyone entered. "Perfect timing. I set it up so if your aura goes into the red your scroll will give an alert along with the speakers going off. Ring outs are enabled just so you all know." He set the timer to start the match in two minutes and everyone got into the ring. They two teams stood on opposite sides and were getting ready.**

 **"So what's the plan, Fearless Leader?" Nora asked, fully pumped up.**

 **"Well, Nora. Since you're our powerhouse, how do you feel about taking on Yang?"**

 **Nora jumped up and down, "Awesome!"**

 **Jaune chuckled, "If her Semblance starts to become too much for you, just call for me and I'll give you a 'pick me up' with Raikiri." She nodded with her slightly evil looking grin. Jaune then turned to Ren, "How do you feel about taking on Blake?"**

 **Ren looked up for a second, considering before nodding. "I should be able to do that." He said with a small smile.**

 **Jaune then turned to Pyrrha, "So, Partner, think you can handle Ruby? She'd utterly school me at long-range."**

 **She smiled. "Would be my pleasure. So, you'll take Weiss?"**

 **Jaune nodded before he turned back to the other team, "She's their most versatile fighter but I think I can give her a run for her money." He cracked his knuckles before drawing Raikiri. "If things start to go south for any of us, just whistle and we'll come up with a counter strategy. For now, let's keep things simple." Everyone got into their fighting stances and waited for the last thirty seconds to go by. The timer went off and Jaune immediately shot forward in a burst of lightning. He stopped in front of RWBY before he discharged a large amount of lightning causing them to scatter.**

"I'm really eager to see who's the better team," grinned Yang.

"Yang, please, we all know how this will end," scoffed Jaune. "We are watching this just for entertainment."

"Oh? Do tell…" The other blonde crossed her arms on her chest. "And pray tell, who is gonna win?"

Jaune sighed. "Yang, all of RWBY has Semblances that could take on half a team by themselves. Plus you're all very skilled. Nora is stronger than you but you literally punch harder the harder you're hit, so that's kind of a bother, while Nora's Semblance is actually very hard to activate. Ren is a martial art expert who could no doubt kick Blake's ass, but his Semblance is only useful against Grimm, while she can dodge literally any hit. Plus with Weiss's gift of Dust cartridge, she can know have her clones have multiple effects," he explained, gesturing. "Ruby's speed make her impossible to be hit, and she can attack just fine. Plus her weapon is overkill since it's extremely powerful both as melee and ranged. Pyrrha is very skilled but against an opponent who is _that_ much faster than she is, and has a weapon that can bypass her shield due to the hooked shape of Crescent Rose, she would have a harder time against Ruby than against anyone else from RWBY. And while Weiss is also skilled with her rapier her Semblance is the real deal. With a good range of Dust in your barrel, Weiss, you can use your Glyphs to do just about anything. Heck, last time you said you were working on _time dilatation!_ How is that _not_ overkill? While I -or rather the Swordsman- has a nice range of choices he still has to change the sword and waste much Dust, while you can even use it when fighting. Team RWBY is intrinsically stronger than Team JNPR. Without Semblances, it'd be a completely different story."

Blake, Weiss and Ruby blushed in shame. It was true that their Semblances were really too powerful, even if they had complained about the Swordsman's being overkill. And now that they thought of it… they really always relied on their Semblances to win the fights. Ruby used her speed every time she could to throw her opponent off-kilter, and she was still the one who used it less. Weiss was basically useless without her Glyphs, since her rapier didn't really do much damage outside of its Dust functions. Blake's fighting style was the opposite of defensive, as she completely relied on her Semblance instead of blocking or parrying. And Yang didn't even know the meaning of 'defence', since she knew that she would just get stronger. No opponent thus far had ever managed to outlast her while she was powered-up, so she had never changed her style. Then they looked at JNPR.

It was true, JNPR was intrinsically weaker than them… just because two of them never used their Semblances, one had only recently discovered it, and the last just didn't really need it. Ren mostly used his martial arts, relying on his weapons almost only for ranged fight. Nora… well, she hit pretty hard, although she too forgot about defence. Jaune… was Jaune, and thus was not on their level but tried his best. And Pyrrha was just on a completely different level, having trained her whole life. Without Semblances, it'd be a much fairer battle, and eventually a win for JNPR.

After all, one of them had trained her whole life, and two of them had learned how to fight in the wildlands. Hadn't Uncle Qrow always said 'a day out there is worth a week in there'?

Yang, instead, refused to acknowledge the jab and grinned at Jaune. "So you're saying we're gonna see the world's biggest ass-kicking, right?" she asked cheerfully. "RWBY is the strongest here."

" _But_ , I was gonna say, we have Pyrrha," continued Jaune, gesturing to the champion. "If she really wants to win the match she can just use her Semblance to make your weapons useless and win effortlessly."

Yang pouted. "And then you talk about overkill Semblances?"

Qrow barked out a laugh. "Firecracker, he was more like talking about how you children _all_ rely on your Semblances to win and never on your head," he explained rudely. "Ozpin, Jimmy, Tai, Summer, Raven and I all never use our Semblances in a fight… when it's possible," he added in a whisper. "You were born with very combat-related Semblances. Haven't you noticed that every single one of you uses her Semblance more or less as much as the whole Beacon student body except for you eight? You use it at all times. You should know how to fight, not how to use your Semblance to win."

* * *

 **Yang skidded across the arena and was about to charge the swordsman when she noticed the shadow below her. She looked up to see Nora coming down on her with Magnhild in hammer mode. She crossed her arms to take the hit and the crater forming around them was evident enough to show they both were serious. They both grinned at their opponent before dealing a few blows to each other. Nora seemed to have the upper hand until Yang's Semblance kicked in and Nora quickly jumped back with a barrage of grenades. Yang discharged a few shots from Ember Celica to stop them. When Nora landed she turned to Jaune's direction with her hammer in the air, waving it. "Jaune, I need a hand!" Jaune quickly dodged a strike from Weiss before sending an arc towards Nora. Nora devoured it like a stack of pancakes before she reengaged Yang. The two clashed like two titans but this time with more fire and lightning.**

* * *

 **Ren and Blake were currently having their own showdown. The two were using their reflexes and acrobatics to dodge each other's firearms. The two then charged each other and clashed together in a flurry of slashes from their blades. Ren broke through her defense but struck only her Shadow. Ren was able to pick up where she was using his aura senses. He quickly spun to see Blake using Gambol Shroud in its kusarigama form to try to get an edge. Ren quickly rolled backwards out of the way before opening fire on her again. Blake was able to either deflect most of the bullets using both her blade and sheathe. She than started to run to the side and started to fire on Ren as well. Ren started to move while still firing. Both knew that the one to land the first definitive hit would have a clear advantage and that would go to the one who kept their cool.**

"Wow, a fight of statues," stage-whispered Nora, nudging Pyrrha, who just so happened to be nearby. "I bet Blakey wins."

"Shouldn't you cheer Ren on?" asked Yang.

"I do," she grinned. "But I'm not dumb. Wishing for him to win doesn't mean I know he will."

"Thanks Nora…"

* * *

 **Ruby and Pyrrha were both having trouble dealing with their adversary. Ruby's Speed kept Pyrrha on edge and she couldn't get any decent hits on the reaper. Meanwhile, Pyrrha's Polarity was allowing her to either dodge Ruby's attacks or deflect them slightly. Ruby was also at a disadvantage do to Milo's changes in reach and Pyrrha's shield absorbing most of her bullets. Both were slowly chipping away at each other's aura but not at the usual rate they'd prefer. They'd have to wait for backup to have an edge but that seemed to be a long way away. They'd have to deal with it for now.**

* * *

 **Meanwhile, Jaune and Weiss were going at each other like their lives depended on it. Jaune almost immediately had to draw a second sword to keep up with Weiss' strikes. This pushed her back, since Jaune was focused completely on his swordplay at this point in time. Jaune was about to score a decisive hit but Weiss used her Glyph as a shield at the last second. Jaune immediately kicked off it and as he was doing so, sent a wave of water at her with Suikiri. Weiss used Myrtenaster to quickly freeze the water into an ice wall. This gave Jaune the chance to switch out Raikiri for Kakiri but used the last of his lightning enhanced aura to shoot around the wall to flank Weiss. He failed to notice that Weiss had frozen the ground around her as well and he slid more than he intended.**

 **Weiss used this opportunity to thrust at him with the help of one of her Glyphs. Jaune used his increased reflexes from his water enhanced aura to barely dodge, while following up with slamming Kakiri into the ground to both melt the ice and create a thick mist. Weiss kept herself on edge looking for Jaune until she saw all the water he just melted coming down on he from above. She reflexively froze the water into a giant icicle. Jaune flew at it from out of the mist with a smirk, "Thanks, Snow Angel." Was all he said before he kicked it towards Blake and Ren with his enhanced strength. "Ren!" he shouted before reengaging with Weiss.**

"Weiss!" exclaimed Blake, feeling betrayed.

"It's not _my_ fault," she defended herself. "And besides, you should be able to deal with it just fine."

"This doesn't mean you can just attack your own teammate," Yang chipped in.

"I'm not!"

Ozpin chuckled. Seriously, being the Headmaster of Beacon was just so entertaining at times.

* * *

 **At this point, Ren and Blake were both circling each other. Waiting for the right moment to strike. Ren heard Jaune and from the corner of his eye saw the icicle flying at them. He got the message, loud and clear. He pulled StormFlower back into his sleeves before he back flipped over the icicle and hitting it with his aura palms. This created a hailstorm of ice towards Blake. Blake used her blades to deflect them but wasn't prepared for Ren to charge her from the side. As she turned, Ren hooked his blades onto her katana and spun, disarming her of her sword as he threw it. He was about to capitalize until he heard a voice. "REN!" he turned to see Nora flying at him. He turned to catch her and both slid backwards. They couldn't catch their breath though due to Yang sending off shots at them. The two jumped back. Blake turned to see Yang, giving her a two finger salute, with her Semblance still active, before charging towards Weiss and Jaune.**

 **Jaune had swapped out Suikiri for Dokiri, he didn't like giving Weiss more ammo to use against him. She was sending icicles at him with the help of her Glyphs but he either just tanked the hits or shattered it with his strength. He sent a wave of fire at her and she used another Glyph to defend herself. Jaune was about to rush her again, until he saw a fireball coming at him. He crossed his blades in front of him to block Yang's punch, but the two hitting together shook the whole ring, possibly the whole room. The two just stared each other down until Yang cocked a smirk, "Mind if I** _ **cut**_ **in?" she said.**

 **Jaune chuckle slightly at her terrible pun, "Nah, I don't mind** _ **shaking**_ **things up." He said with the same smirk before slamming his foot on the ground to cause a tremor. This caused Yang to lose her footing and Jaune kicked off her to get some reprieve. He used Kakiri to pull some of the fire from Yang and mixed it with his own flames before sending it towards Ruby and Pyrrha. "Partner!" was all he shouted until he got knock further back because of a small vortex created by Weiss. Jaune slammed into the ground and looked to see both Yang and Weiss getting ready to attack him.**

"You're so dead now," Yang chuckled evilly.

"Thankfully _I_ am alive and well," Jaune shot back, quite annoyed. "And as much as I do enjoy a spar all hits, even if blocked by Aura, _hurt_. Why are you _liking_ the idea of beating your friend down?"

"Eh, it's just for fun," she shrugged.

"Yeah, sure, just for fun," scoffed Cardin, who meanwhile had gathered his bearings from being eaten by a giant dragon – who was now back to innocent puppy. "I'm pretty sure you just like to feel superior. You'd do anything to win."

Yang's eyes turned red, but Blake grabbed her arm. "Rudeness aside he's not wrong, you do have a competitive streak a mile wide," she noted with a raised eyebrow. "You should really learn how to accept defeat or just don't always go into rage when you lose."

Yang huffed in annoyance, but allowed her partner to keep her still. "It's not that I always want to win and go in berserk if I don't," she complained. "It's more that… I hate losing."

* * *

 **Pyrrha and Ruby were engaged in a power struggle until they saw the giant fireball coming towards them. They both jumped back from each other as the fireball hit the ground and created a wall of flames. Pyrrha looked to see her partner being double teamed, she threw her shield at Weiss before firing a few shots at Yang. She than sprinted towards them to back him up. Ruby saw this and used her Semblance to get there before her.**

* * *

 **Jaune was on the defensive now. He had to deal with Yang's destructive punches and Weiss' precise strikes. They worked very well together, considering they fought most of the time. He heard a familiar sound and quickly jumped straight up. Akouo came flying directly at Weiss but once again used a Glyph to stop it. Jaune came down with an axe kick on top of Akouo's edge and used it as a wedge to shatter Weiss' Glyph. She was stunned and Yang was about to defend her but the shots from Pyrrha caught her off guard and made her roll out of the way. Jaune was about to blast Weiss with fire until red rose petals appeared in front of him. Next thing he knew; Crescent Rose was biting into his aura. He was knocked back and when he recovered, he saw the RWY of RWBY ready to gang up on him. He quickly brought up an earth wall in front of him and kicked off of it with all his strength and aura. That sent him flying back towards Pyrrha and shattered the earth wall into a wave of rock shrapnel towards the girls.**

"Having problems, Sir Knight?" Weiss grinned smugly.

"Not really, it's more of a 'where the heck are my teammates if I have to fight three quarters of the other team by myself' problem," Jaune replied. He wasn't worried. He knew the Swordsman was still gonna lose but that wasn't his problem. As long as Yang didn't get the unhealthy -for his health, that is- idea to replicate the fight, he was safe. "And if any of you gloat about winning three against one, I'm seriously gonna write 'petty child' on your foreheads."

Yang closed her mouth, having been about to gloat.

 **Jaune landed next to Pyrrha and both were trying to catch their breath. A second later Blake joined up with her team as Ren and Nora rejoined them. Jaune looked at the display on the wall and saw that they were all getting low on aura. He sighed before grinning, "Ren, Nora." The two looked at him as he a pointed to his back with his thumb, "Let's knock the dust off our old combo." They nodded with their own grins. Everyone watched as they stepped behind Jaune, Nora than drew Raikiri and held it in her left hand and Ren drew Fukiri with his right. Everyone was shocked, they believed that only Jaune had access to his blades. "Pyrrha, give us cover?" She came out of her stupor with a nod and knelt with Milo in its rifle form as the rest of her team charged RWBY.**

"Silence, everyone," said Ozpin. "I'd like this to be a moment of observation."

 **They were taken off guard by this but were about to retaliate until Pyrrha's covering fire got to them. Weiss put up one more Glyph to defend all of them and they all got to see what happened next. Nora absorbed all of Raikiri's electricity before spinning with her hammer. Jaune grabbed Ren and jumped into the air. His feet hit Nora's hammer and sent the two of them flying towards their target. Almost immediately, Jaune let go of Ren and he spun with Fukiri, using its wind to send Jaune even faster at RWBY. Jaune crossed Kakiri and Dokiri in front of him as rocks and fire surrounded him. With his augmented strength and durability enhanced by the high speed he was traveling at, he broke right through the Glyph and the force of the impact he hit the ground at caused the girls to be scattered.**

 **He was kneeling on the ground breathing deeply. Until he felt the gravity around him increase drastically. He looked up to see Weiss also kneeling and pointing Myrtenaster at him with a black Glyph above him. "That was impressive, Jaune, but I suggest you give up now." She said out of breath. Jaune slowly shook his head and tried with all his strength to stand. Weiss saw this and tried to increase the force of her Glyph. If it wasn't for Jaune's strength and durability being augmented, his bones would probably be broken right now. Both knew they were putting everything they had into doing what they were trying to do, this was a battle of wills. Until Weiss' aura went into the red and her Glyph disappeared. She collapsed and Jaune stood up. Jaune went to switch out his swords but when he did, his sheathes felt off. They weren't moving like they usually do. He was taken out of this thought when Yang connected a fist to his face.**

"Not fair," pouted Nora. "Three on one, plus then he uses all his energies to break through the Ice Queen's overkill Semblance, and then Yang uses her powered-up Semblance to hit him at full force? Not cool. Totally not cool."

"Totally cool, instead!" exclaimed Yang herself. "No hard feelings Jaune, but I feel like the day JNPR will defeat RWBY will be a sad day indeed!"

Jaune's eyes narrowed, and Ruby groaned. Leave it to Yang to say the wrong thing at the wrong time with the wrong voice around the wrong people. "Maybe it's time for us to flatten your ego, Yang." When he spoke, his voice was hard. It wasn't cold like it had been a few viewings earlier, but it held no warmth. "Team JNPR, team meeting after the viewing, then team-vs-team match with Team RWBY. I want _everyone_ of them to be down by the end, and _everyone_ of us to be still up. No mistakes forgiven."

Yang raised an eyebrow, thinking of it as a joke, but then realized that nor Jaune nor the others of Team JNPR were anything but serious. Even Nora was scowling. "Hey, hey, come on, mine was just friendly banter," she protested, to be frank a little peeved at how quickly they opposed her just for a joke. "No need to get moody."

"We are not moody, Yang, and your ego is really in need of adjustment," countered Jaune. "Of your whole team, maybe only Ruby is spared from egocentrism. You all subconsciously think too high of yourselves. Well, let's see if your ego can take the 'weaker team' beating you."

Ozpin sighed and shook his head. He knew that had been long overdue, and from the looks of it so did Qrow and Goodwitch. Team RWBY was an amazing team, but they had the flaw of believing themselves to be always good enough. For example when they went to fight the White Fang on their own, not even telling their friends about it. They hadn't even considered they might've been in over their heads, they had just jumped into the fray.

Looking at Team JNPR, Ozpin realized that Team RWBY was probably going to have to eat the dust very soon. Ren was a martial art expert, Nora was a powerhouse, Pyrrha was extremely skilled and Jaune had a great mind for strategy. While Team RWBY always fought each by herself, Team JNPR had the potential of fighting like a team. And four people on their own against a team had no chance of winning.

 **He was sent out of the ring and hit the far wall, creating a massive indent and he then fell to the ground as his aura was gone. The buzzer went off signalling this. He tried to stand but collapsed instantly. He was on the brink of passing out when he heard Pyrrha shouting his name and heard footsteps running towards him. He was then moved into a sitting position by her and she was looking down at him. "Jaune, are you okay?!" She said worriedly.**

 **He nodded slightly, "Yeah. Lucky I still had my Semblance working its magic or I'd probably be in bad shape." He said weakly with a small chuckle.**

 **"Jaune, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you that hard. You usually dodge or parry when I go all out." Yang said. He looked over to her and she looked worried. So did everyone else. Looks like they forgot about the match.**

 **He shook his head, "Its fine, Sun Fire. I just got distracted when my sheathes didn't respond to my command. Speaking of which." He sat up more and pulled the sheathes off his back and placed them on the ground, he than applied pressure with his fingers to try to move them. The sheathes would try to move but would stop halfway before giving up. After a try or two, Jaune just sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I think that increased gravity damaged the servos."**

"Oops…" Weiss tried to shrink, but no one really cared. They had been more worried about the Swordsman's health. Speaking of which…

"Firecracker… what was that?" asked Qrow, his voice _dangerously_ sober. "'You usually dodge or parry when I go all out'? You didn't even think about how hard you were about to hit because you just said 'he's gonna dodge anyway'? You do realize that you could've easily killed him, had he had a little less Aura?"

Yang shrank in shame. "I…"

Jaune opened his mouth to defend her, but Qrow cut him off. "Tai and Signal did a shitty job at training you," he stated bluntly, making her flinch. "You rely on pure strength when you fight, and you lock your brain away for the whole duration of the match. That's gonna change. That _has_ to change."

Ozpin raised a hand to stop him from tearing into the girl any further. "Qrow, please, do not be so harsh with her, she-"

"Don't try to stop me, Oz, this is a _family matter_ ," growled the Huntsman. "I don't give much of a damn about the cat and the Ice Queen Jr but that mindset is gonna get her killed."

 **Weiss looked troubled, "I'm sorry, Jaune. I'll pay for the damages." She hurriedly said, feeling terrible for what she did but Jaune just waved it off.**

 **"It's fine, Weiss. The servos burn out all the time, I have to replace them on a regular basis anyways. You just gave me the incentive to do it sooner." He smiled at her and she returned a smaller one. He picked up his sheathes and with a grunt of exertion, pushed them back to their standby positions. He sheathed Kakiri and Dokiri before Ren and Nora came over to him and sheathed the blades they borrowed. He placed them on his back as Ruby jumped in front of him.**

 **"Jaune. Why didn't you tell us anyone besides you can use your swords? You always gave the impression that only you could draw them." She just gave him a betrayed look.**

 **He felt a little bad and rubbed the back of his neck, "I guess that never came up. The sheathes only respond to certain auras and only allow the individuals with those auras to draw the swords. Nora, Ren and I are the only ones that they allow to use them. And I didn't mention it before because how often does anyone else besides me need to use my weapons?" No one responded and he continued, "Now as much as I would love to continue this conversation, let's get out of here before Goodwitch shows up and blows a gasket over the mess we made." They all agreed before running out of the sparring room.**

Goodwitch was highly unamused about the last sentence, but she kept her cool and looked toward the students. Team JNPR was getting up for the team meeting Jaune had called, although the leader himself had a little problem removing Ruby from his lap, as she had apparently decided to turn herself into Jaune's newest red ornament. After a bit of struggling, asking and pouting, the knight joined the other three in a corner while Team RWBY just looked nervous -Ruby- or a little exasperated by JNPR's behaviour – the other three.

"Guys, there's not really much to say," Jaune began as he reached the others. "Ruby is super fast and her weapon packs a mean punch, so I'd say Ren will be the one who will focus on handling her. We will work as one, so… Ren, whenever she comes near, use your martial art techniques to use her own speed against her. I'm still sore from last time you sent me trough a wall, so that's gonna work for sure."

Ren smiled slightly as Jaune turned to Nora. "Nora, I suggest you take on Weiss, mainly. She's very fast but her endurance is extremely low. Plus you should be able to break through some of her Glyphs in case you need to." The girl grinned happily. "And Pyrrha, Blake is yours. You have the highest attack number : strength proportion, so even if she dodges most of your attacks you should still be able to bring her down."

"And you will be taking on Yang?" asked Ren, incredulous. "Do you have a plan?"

"Nope, 'cause I'm not taking her on. I'm the weakest fighter here, and please don't start protesting, so I will charge her Semblance up the least. And I have the most Aura, so I can last until you are done with the others. Once you are, even if she charges up with hits there'll be too many of us for her to defeat," he explained before stopping for a second. "And… no Semblances. We're teaching them a lesson they won't forget anytime soon." The other three nodded.

Team JNPR had a mission, and they were gonna rock it.

 ** _Whelp, that was hard._**

 ** _Anyway, as you might've noticed (I'm being sarcastic) all the eight main cast are self-harm. If you think about it, all their backgrounds are pretty messed up._**

 ** _Yes, this chapter was only partially "lighter". I won't write the fight scene next chapter but I will write how [who won] has achieved victory. A good plan vs raw power, who's gonna win? If we follow RT's method, raw power (Cinder...). If we want to be realistic, it depends on how much stronger the 'raw power' side is. Usually, a good plan wins, I can tell you from experience (experience both in winning with a plan and losing without one... ow...), but we shall see._**

 ** _And yes, RWBY is not voluntarily arrogant but subconsciously so. And their Semblances... my brother and I talked for hours (well... he talked, I listened like a victim) about how RWBY's Semblances are all far too OP. And it's true! If I had one of their Semblance and I lived in Remnant, I'd be nigh-invincible! And I am not a master fighter._**

 ** _So, now that this is out of the way, there's a new pool on my profile. For my next story. Go and vote if you like my works._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	25. Chapter 24

**_Whew, almost 10k words just on this one. The viewing itself won't have many reactions from RWBY and JNPR for... reasons... but see you all in a longer footnote. On a side note, I do no own "Headlong". The song is owned by the Queen._**

The two teams were back inside the fortress, Vlakha Naroak, in one of the 'training rooms, aka arenas, with their weapons at the ready.

Team RWBY stood on a side, in a clean line, spelling their team name from left to right: Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. On the other side stood Team JNPR, in close tank formation. Jaune and Pyrrha with their shields up and their blades at the ready. Ren was behind Pyrrha while Nora was behind Jaune, both with their weapons out and -in Nora's case- deployed as ranged weapon. Both teams were waiting for the countdown to announce the start of the fight, and eight sets of eyes were narrowed in determination. Team RWBY was determined to fight for their honour, Team JNPR was ready to teach them humility before it could kill them.

 _ **5… 4… 3… 2… 1… FIGHT!**_

Team RWBY moved immediately, but Team JNPR was stone-still. Stopping in their charges, the four girls looked at each other in confusion before a barrage of hits rained down upon them, all carefully avoiding Yang and her surroundings to avoid charging up her Semblance so early during the fight. Ruby, Weiss and Blake all dodged most of the bullets, but between Ren's continuous hail, Nora's explosions, and Pyrrha's sniper precision, some still got through.

"Come on, we cannot let them bring us down with bullets!" exclaimed Ruby, taking aim with Crescent Rose. Her teammates followed her example, responding with their own ranged attacks, but Team JNPR hid behind the shield-bearers, and not for the first time curses against those defensive objects were shouted by angry attackers.

Yang was the first to charge in, aiming to disrupt the shield formation, and she flung herself in the melee with a raised fist. However, Team JNPR just split in two duos, allowing her to literally ran between them before closing the formation once again. Yang looked at her teammates, and Ruby nodded. She had a plan. With a grin, the blonde brawler ran around JNPR to rejoin her team. "What's the plan, Ruby?" she asked cheekily, not caring about keeping her voice down. Maybe Team JNPR would've tried to attack if they heard they were planning. The plant-named team was still unmoving.

Ruby silenced her and explained the plan to them in hushed tones. "Simple, we disrupt them and we pick them off one by one. If we manage to get Pyrrha last, Jaune told her not to use her Semblance, we might win."

Weiss nodded. "I'll disrupt them," she told the others, creating a Glyph right under Team JNPR with nay but a thought and a sliver of Aura. She pushed Aura into it to empower it. "It is done already, I'm gonna freeze them solid."

 _BOOM_.

Weiss stumbled as her Glyph was forcefully destroyed by the hammer maiden of JNPR. Nora grinned as she lifted Maghnild from the hole in the floor that had once been Weiss's Glyph. With a frown, she glanced at Ruby, who merely cocked Crescent Rose and charged. Blake and Yang charged right after her, and Weiss followed suit.

Ruby slowed down to allow Blake to reach the walls first, and the cat Faunus used her Semblance to teleport herself past the shields. It was very risky, but they couldn't deal with her without breaking formation. Thankfully, it was exactly what they did. Unfortunately, all she got for her trouble was Akoúo slamming into her back. She rolled and was immediately back on her feet, locking eyes with Pyrrha. "I guess you're my opponent?" she asked quietly. The champion merely nodded and charged. With another use of her Semblance, Blake found herself above the redhead and slashed down with Gambol Shroud, only to be met with Miló coming back up and blocking her strike. Blake jumped off Pyrrha and the two stared at each other for a second before charging again.

Ruby reached them next, heading straight for Jaune, but she had forgotten one important detail. With a powerful beat of his wings, he removed himself from the ground, leaving her to target Ren, who had instead put Storm Flowers away. It didn't matter in the end, even though Ruby had hoped to be able to take out the strategist first. No offence to Jaune of course, she didn't mean it like he was the easiest to take out, even if it _was_ indeed true but… argh! She just charged Ren, who barely blinked. She used her Semblance to reach him, deactivating it at the last second to be able to deliver the hit, but to her great surprise Ren merely knelt with… oh shit. Ren knelt while keeping his right elbow up, supported by his left arm, and she slammed into said elbow with all the force of her charge. Even the ninja slid back a little, but he quickly regained his balance and lashed out with two kicks that she dodged. Swiping with Crescent Rose, she managed to nick his clothes and spin him around before kicking his back, making him stumble. Ren turned immediately, and magenta met silver, both burning with determination.

Seeing all of that, Yang nodded to Weiss, who created a Glyph under her, before leaping in the air to punch Jaune back to the ground, but she had forgotten that flying individuals had something jumping individuals did not have: manoeuvrability. Jaune easily swerved to the side, but he didn't even attempt to hit her. Instead, he lowered himself closer to the ground as if he wanted to fight her. Well, as sure as hell Yang Xiao Long wasn't going to be defeated by Jaune Arc of all people! She might like him, okay maybe more than just liking, maybe like-liking him, but that didn't mean she would allow him to defeat her. If anything, the opposite. She wanted to show off her skills, maybe some skin too, and to impress him, not to be defeated. She fired a barrage of shots at him, and a few managed to hit him, even though most just glanced off his armour. _'Okay, note to self: armour_ _ **does**_ _deflect hits, it's not just for show. And full armour is damn annoying,'_ she thought to herself as she continued to fire. One of her shots hit his right wing and he spiralled down for a few yards before catching himself. That was enough. While he was busy, Yang ran and leapt in the air again, delivering a devastating haymaker down on him. Normally, she would've preferred to use a hook punch, since haymakers were easier to deflect, parry or dodge, but given how Jaune had no real chance in unarmed fight against her, and he was also distracted, she went for full-force, sending Jaune into the ground and fracturing the arena's floor for a few yards around him. Blasting with Ember Celica behind her, she descended upon him with another punch, but he managed to roll out of the way. Now temporarily grounded, Jaune lifted his shield, ready to block, but his sword remained low by his side.

Weiss was the last to engage in melee. After helping Yang, she vaguely entertained the idea of helping out one of her teammates, but eventually decided against it. A Nora left on her own was a dangerous Nora, especially since she was the one who packed the most damage in Team JNPR. A surprise attack from her could take out any of them. With a flick of her hand, a series of Glyph appeared in the air around her, and she flung a series of icicles at Nora. Each Glyph disappeared after throwing the ice and reformed immediately afterwards, creating an endless barrage of ice. It was tiring, but theoretically Nora would've been unable to block them all, or at least to advance. Unfortunately, Nora defied those mere laws of Physics, and instead used her grenade launcher to fling herself into the air, leaving the ice to hit the ground, before coming down on Weiss with a mighty two-handed swing of Maghnild. Quickly summoning a Glyph underneath herself, Weiss removed herself from the lethal area -and she wasn't completely joking on that-, but the shockwave still made her lose her balance. In a second, Nora was already upon her, wielding the huge hammer as if it were made of paper. Weiss managed to dodge the main hit, but her shoulder was still hit slightly. And by Nora's standards, slightly still hurt a lot. Weiss rolled on the floor and quickly got up again, staring at the grinning girl before her. Well, now she understood why Nora's opponents usually babbled about her being a psychopath. She did look the part.

Back to Ruby, she quickly went for a simple scythe sweep, but Ren was not a martial artist for nothing. With more flair and dramatics than he strictly needed, he jumped over her scythe and basically landed on her head. Keeping her head between his feet, he threw himself back, landing on his hands, before lifting Ruby off the ground and bringing her back down on the other side. She managed to free herself and slash at him with Crescent Rose before meeting the ground, but he wasn't done. He deflected the next attack with his forearm, swiping it aside, before he grabbed Crescent Rose's shaft and embedded the point in the concrete. Using a technique he had copied from Ruby herself, he used the shaft as lever and kicked her away, then he somersaulted over the girl and landed behind her. Before she could turn, he grabbed her by the waist and suplexed the smaller girl, taking out a good chunk of her Aura. Still above the red, but just slightly. As she slowly stood back up, cradling her head and a fairly dazed, he roundhouse-kicked her before drawing back a leg and delivering a powerful frontal kick to her face, sending her in the red. Since she was still too dazed to understand his apologies, he just stick to a 'sorry' and then went to help the others.

With Blake, things were pretty complicated. She used her Semblance to dodge most hits, but Pyrrha was just so _damn fast and skilled!_ Every hit had surgeon-like precision, and every time Blake managed to find an opening in her swordplay, she either blocked with Akoúo or dodged the hit. Even the hits Blake had still landed on her hadn't done much if not allowed her to counter-attack with even more fierceness. Blake finally lunged with her katana, but Pyrrha swatted it aside with her shield and drove Miló forwards, forcing Blake to leave behind an ice clone and teleport to the side.

"Blake, watch out!"

She barely had time to hear Weiss's shout before a shadow was upon her, and she grimaced. She had just used her Semblance, so that meant it was over. With a grin, Nora freaking Valkyrie brought Maghnild down, hellbent on flattening both Blake and Blake's ego. And while she had Aura to protect herself, her ego didn't. All what Blake could do, was to press her ears against her head and whine softly before everything went white for a second. Next thing she knew, her Aura was well in the red, she had a new bump on her head, and she was out of the fight.

Weiss gritted her teeth. She had tried to warn Weiss, but that was easier said than done. With her quick rapier and her Semblance, she was keeping Ren at bay, but when both Pyrrha and Nora joined the melee once again, she could only hope that Yang would be able to quickly take Jaune out and help her out. Glancing at the screen, she saw that Yang still had no damage, and frowned. Jaune was less skilled than they were, but he wasn't an idiot fumbling around with a sword. He could hit them, especially someone with as little defence as Yang, but instead nothing. Instead, the blond knight's Aura was nearing 40%. How could he still have that much after two minutes of Yang was behind her. Massive Aura pools or not, he'd have to be completely fighting on the defensive to…

Finally, it clicked. Also something else clicked, namely Mysternaster against Miló as she blocked the champion's attack. Their plan had been… simple, but efficient. So simple Weiss hadn't seen it until the very last moment. She had thought Jaune had grown arrogant, trying to take on Yang, but instead they had used their own arrogance against them. They weren't gonna just fight by themselves. She grimaced as she tried to use her Semblance to escape Pyrrha's relentless assault, but Ren was behind her and he spinning-kicked her back to the two girls. Rolling under Nora's hammer swing, she couldn't even block when Akoúo slamming into her face, followed by two quick slashes from Miló. That was enough to send her just barely into the red, signalling she was out of the fight. With a sigh of relief, she slumped to the ground. "At least I didn't end up like Blake or Ruby," she panted, glancing at the mentioned two. Ruby still had stars and corgis running around her head, while Blake was trying to force her bump back into her skull.

Yang growled as her umpteenth punch hit nothing but pure air. "Stay still!" she shouted, running after a low-flying Jaune, who just kept dodging and blocking. Her eyes were red, but the only 'damage' she had was her own self-inflicted exhaustion. She fired a few shots at him, managing to snatch his wing once more, and rushed to take the opening. He tried to block with his shield, but she had finally learned that hitting a shield wasn't gonna do much to the one behind it. She returned her left Ember Celica to its compact form and gripped the shield's edge, grimacing as the razor-sharp blade bit into her palm. Damn, she had forgotten the shield was what made up the blades of his halberd mode. Nonetheless, she forcefully brought it down, secretly enjoying both his surprised expression and his blush when she winked at him, before using her still-armed right hand to punch him, firing a shot the second she made contact. The hit took out at least five percent of Jaune's Aura, sending him in the upper teens percent, basically grazing the red at 18%. Normal people would've probably lost ten to fifteen percent of their Aura. Well, she at least hoped the rumour about large Aura reserves was true.

As if on cue, all three of Jaune's teammates arrived, their presence telling her that her team was on the verge of being defeated. Even with Jaune temporarily out of the fight, she still knew she had lost. She couldn't defeat Nora, Pyrrha and Ren, all of them with their Auras still around or above half. An idea came to her mind. Well, if she really had to go out, at least she'd go out with a _Yang_. She focused all her hits on Ren, knowing he had the lowest Aura pools of their teams, around as much as Ruby. He still was at fifty or so percent when her own Aura neared the red. Damn Nora's hammer, Pyrrha's skill and Ren's martial arts. Jaune had rejoined the fight as well, this time using his polearm. _'Not the one I'd like, though,'_ she thought with a dirty grin and a blush. Whelp, no time for naughty thoughts, she had to make a grand exit!

Focusing most of her Semblance, she waited for an opening before charging at Ren, hellbent on at least knocking him out of the fight. She knew Pyrrha would've protected Jaune or at least stopped her, but Nora was both too far away and without the right weaponry. With a large grin, she brought back a fist and almost laughed at Ren's resigned expression. With one last effort, she punched him with all her strength. That should've been enough to take out forty of the remaining fifty percent of his Aura.

Before she could make contact, a golden blur shoved Ren aside, and her fist impacted with someone with much less Aura than fifty percent at the same time a sword hit her chest, officially sending her in the red.

Jaune was sent flying into a wall and crashed back down, his Aura meter blaring angrily in emergency damage. Shocked and worried, everyone rushed to his side, with Blake and Ruby having finally come out of their daze. Pyrrha called his name, but he didn't reply. When Ren turned him over to check if he was unconscious, they all gasped, Yang and Ruby screamed, and silence fell over them.

Jaune's eyes were open, dull blue staring off into empty space, and a tiny rivulet of blood stained his cheek as it flowed from his mouth. But the most horrifying detail was his chestplate. The golden metal was bent _inwards_ , and where the metal hadn't given out, his chest had. Without Aura to protect himself, his ribs had broken. Ren placed a shocked hand on Jaune's wrist, but to their horror he couldn't feel any heartbeat.

Then, finally, Nora's brain rebooted. She and Ren were the most used to loss, so it made sense she would come to her senses soon. "Ruby, now, your Semblance, the water in the fountain outside, NOW!" she screamed at the smaller redhead, gripping her shoulders and shaking her out of her horrified trance. "GO! Jaune's life might very well depend on you, for fuck's sake RUN!"

Ruby broke out of her daze and disappeared in a flurry of rose petals, running faster than she'd ever run. Nora didn't kneel as much as she fell to her knees beside Jaune pounding the ground with her fist. "You jerk, you can't do this! You said we were a family, you said I had a family again, WHY DID YOU DO THAT!? IT WAS JUST A SPAR, WHY DID YOU KILL YOURSELF!?" she sobbed, refusing to look at anyone. Even Ren couldn't do anything if not hope. "Just to teach them humility, to possibly save them from being killed by their own arrogance… was 'possibly' really worth it!? I CAN'T TAKE LOSING ANY MORE FAMILY, YOU JERK, COME BACK NOW!"

A few seconds later Ruby was back, appearing in a wind of rose petals, and handed Ren a flask -Qrow's, to be frank- full of the fountain's water. Ren placed it aside and began to fiddle with the chestplate, detaching it after a second but not removing it, not willing to _see_ the injury lying underneath. Without wasting any more seconds, he poured some water in Jaune's mouth, then made everyone else turn, raised the chestplate and poured the rest of the healing liquid on the wound itself.

Jaune made no sound, but the water fizzled on the critical injury as it cleaned the blood and repaired the skin. Some of it filtered through, healing his broken ribs and fixing his organs. Ren and the others watched expectantly but… he didn't wake up. Even after his injury was completely healed, he remained unresponsive, despite Ren's attempts to wake him up. From the door arrived the other Watchers, all of them worried about what had happened but unable to keep up with Ruby's speed.

After a few more seconds, he sighed and decided to express his worries. "I… I believe he's in coma," he stated out loud, making the girls look at each other in concern. "I am not a doctor, I don't know how long he will remain out. I think we should place him in the fountain outside, keeping his head out of the water, so maybe the healing magic will speed up his recover. Nothing else can be done for him right now."

Yang nodded and stepped forth. "I-I'll take him," she stammered weakly, kneeling to pick up Jaune's body, but she stopped when a small hand clamped down onto her arm with the strength of a Goliath. Looking up, she flinched when she saw the unbridled fury in Nora's eyes.

"It's your fault," she hissed angrily, and no one countered her claim. "He wanted to knock your arrogance down a peg because your _Highness_ and her fellow _Ladies_ were probably going to get yourselves _killed_ by overestimating yourself. Out of all of you, _you_ are the worst. You believe yourself invincible, you think you're so strong, you think you can take on the world, WELL YOU'RE WRONG!"

Yang tried to free herself from Nora's grip, but to no avail. Ren stood up and placed a hand on the redhead's wrist, making her release the blonde, but in his eyes there was no warmth. He seemed to agree with Nora. "You haven't seen the world's real colours, Yang. You know nothing of how easily the world could kill you," he told her coldly. Weiss stepped forwards to help her, but Blake and Ruby alike held her back, one out of first-hand knowledge, the other knowing she needed the verbal smackdown just as much as they had needed the physical smackdown. "Nora and I lived with that knowledge for years. Jaune learned it the hard way three years ago. But not you. You experienced loss and grief yet it never dawned on you that you cannot take on the world."

"I-I didn't mean-"

"You didn't mean to hit him hard enough to _cave his chest in?!_ " shouted Nora, pushing Ren aside so that she could glare at Yang once more. "Even with Qrow's lecture earlier about using your head you still didn't even think about how hard you were gonna hit! You charged up your Semblance to its full power, you did it on purpose just for some petty reason of bringing down one of us, because your fucking _pride_ couldn't take being defeated by a _weak_ team that was trying to teach you humility! You _killed_ h-"

"NORA THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Everyone absolutely froze at Ren's shout, and they looked at the boy. His eyes were closed, but his body language was tense and angry. Nora shrank and took a step back, understanding she had overstepped a line. Opening his eyes, Ren fixated his gaze on Yang. "You couldn't have known Jaune would've shoved me to the side. I would've been able to tank that hit, or at least to roll with it. He couldn't, and he pushed me aside for some knightly ideal of his. He is at fault too," he said slowly and coolly. "This argument is not going anywhere. We'll talk about it again, when he wakes up." He grabbed Jaune's comatose form and lifted him up, with Pyrrha aiding him.

As they passed by the others, they parted. "If he ever wakes up," murmured Winter, sadly looking at the boy.

She looked down when she felt an iron grip around her wrist, and found herself staring in turquoise fury. " _When_ he wakes up," Nora corrected her before following the others.

Soon enough, they had all returned to the rocky platform in the volcano's crater, and they placed Jaune in the fountain, carefully keeping his head out of the water. Yang volunteered to remain and make sure he didn't go under, but Nora's angry glare stopped her. Unsurprisingly, she was the one who sat on the edge of the basin, keeping his head on her lap and stroking his hair, all the while murmuring for her brother to wake up. There was just so much sadness in her whole composure, but Ren stopped everyone from approaching her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed once before letting go and sitting down.

The screen lit up, but once again only words greeted them.

 _ **YOU ARE NOT COMPLETELY AT FAULT, YANG. DO NOT HATE YOURSELF TOO MUCH OVER THIS. BUT, YOU DO NEED TO LEARN SELF CONTROL. WE HOPE THIS SONG FROM OUR WORLD WILL GIVE YOU A LITTLE INSIGHT ON THAT.  
KHOR & PHOENIX.**_

As soon as they had read the message, it disappeared, and music started to play. Weiss opened her mouth to point out what kind of music it was, but before it could, the song started, with the lyrics scrolling on the screen.

 _ **"Headlong"**_

 _ **And you're rushing headlong you've got a new goal  
And you're rushing headlong out of control  
And you think you're so strong  
But there ain't no stopping and there's nothin'  
You can do about it  
Nothin' you can do  
No there's nothin' you can do about it  
No there's nothin' you can, nothin' you can  
Nothin' you can do about it**_

 _ **And you're rushing headlong you've got a new goal  
And you're rushing headlong out of control  
And you think you're so strong  
But there ain't no stopping no there's nothin'  
You can do about it  
Yeah**_

 _ **Hey, he used to be a man with a stick in his hand  
Hoop diddy diddy hoop diddy do  
She used to be a woman with a hot dog stand  
Hoop diddy diddy hoop diddy do  
Now you've got soup in the laundry bag  
Now you've got strings, you're gonna lose your rag  
You're gettin' in a fight  
Then it ain't so groovy when you're screaming in the night  
Let me out of this cheap 'B' movie  
Headlong down the highway and you're rushing  
Headlong out of control  
And you think you're so strong  
But there ain't no stopping and you can't stop rockin'  
And there's nothin' you can, nothin' you can  
Nothin' you can do about it**_

 _ **When a red hot man meets a white hot lady  
Hoop diddy diddy hoop diddy do  
Soon the fire starts a raging gets 'em more than half crazy  
Hoop diddy diddy hoop diddy do  
Oh, now they start freaking everyway you turn  
You can't start walking 'cause your feet got burned  
It ain't no time to figure wrong from right  
'Cause reasons out the window  
Better hold on tight, you're rushing headlong  
Headlong out of control, yeah  
You think you're so strong  
There ain't no stopping and there's nothin' you, nothin' you  
Nothin' you can do about it at all  
Yeah yeah alright go  
And you're rushing headlong down the highway  
And you're rushing headlong out of control  
And you think you're so strong  
But there ain't no stopping  
There's nothin', nothin', nothin' you can do about it, yeah  
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh  
Ha ha  
Headlong  
Yeah yeah  
Headlong  
Yeahaw  
Headlong**_

Yang hung her head in shame after the song had ended. Headlong… it defined her perfectly, she guessed. Rash, impulsive, hotheaded, stubborn… and those were just the first adjectives on the list. After the music had died down, the screen changed and the viewing proper began. No one felt the need to call her out any further on her actions, but there was no need. She had already chastised herself.

 **After the eight students had their mad dash across the school to try to avoid the wrath of one Goodwitch, they all found themselves in the courtyard. Although, they soon realized that they were missing Jaune. The girls looked worried for a second until Ren and Nora told them that he does this all the time and they should be used to it by now. After a second or two they realized that they were right and decided on what to do next.**

 **Yang decided she was going to go to Vale to get a few things and Blake offered to go with her so she could stop by her favorite bookstore. Nora also wanted to tag along to see more of Vale and Ren decided to go as well to keep an eye on the cheery bomber. Weiss decided that she wanted to get a head start on the next semester's work and wanted to first go over her notes from last semester. Pyrrha asked if she would mind the company, since the two girls rarely ever spent time together. Pyrrha believed that it would be a more enjoyable experience since Weiss wasn't obsessed with her and acted more normal lately, well normal for Weiss. Weiss agreed and then extended the offer to Ruby, who politely declined. She didn't want to study over her break and wanted to tune up Crescent Rose. With that they all went their separate ways.**

"I bet she meets Jaune there," murmured Blake, casting a glance at the still unmoving and seemingly sleeping form of their friend. "All these viewings have always revolved around him so far…"

"I think yours is a safe bet," nodded Weiss.

Qrow chugged down some more alcohol from the flask he had received as a gift from someone known as 'Randy, the Imperial Guardsman', the one with the four birds on it. After the swig, he glanced at the still utterly depressed Yang and cleared his throat. "Okay, sorry for doing this in the viewing, but I gotta ask what the hell's happened in there."

Yang seemed to slump even further, and Blake opened her mouth to reply, but Nora was faster. "She killed Jaune," she stated angrily, shocking all the other Watchers. They had seen Ruby's panic earlier, but no one had asked anything, and no one had _seen_ the fight. They had thought they'd be fine. They'd been wrong. "She caved his chest in. He had no pulse."

Neptune and Sun were shocked, but Qrow had unfortunately experience with death and loss. He just sighed and spared another glance at the comatose boy before turning to Yang. "Explain."

Yang opened her mouth, but only a sob escaped her lips. She brought her hands up to her face and began to cry. Ruby sat next to her and hugged her while Weiss explained what had happened. "We were at the end of our fight, and Yang was being taken down by all of JNPR. She tried to at least take one down and aimed for Ren, both because Jaune was heavily armoured and had another shield-bearer, Pyrrha, who would've surely protected him. Also he was low on Aura, and she didn't… she didn't want _this_ to happen." She looked at the boy for a second before turning back to the old Huntsman. "But, despite having much less Aura than Ren, Jaune decided to take that hit nonetheless. He shoved Ren aside but couldn't do anything else, and Yang's hit was backed up by her Semblance. At full power."

Qrow winced and looked at the bent chestplate Ren had brought with him in the rock balcony. The chestplate Ruby was now holding, probably studying it to find a way to repair it without having to reforge it outright. "I-". He cut himself off. He was about to tell her 'I told you', but he guessed she had enough pressure on her shoulders already. He sighed. "I guess you did have to learn it the hard way."

 **Ruby was skipping her way to the forge, she was excited to spend the next few hours fine tuning her sweetheart. When she arrived she was shocked to see Jaune already there. He had his sheathes on the workbench in front of him and was engrossed in his work. Ruby walked up behind him and saw that he had the back panel off the sheathes to see into the inner workings of his weapons, along with a plethora of tools that he would need. He was currently looking into the opening with a pair of tweezers and a cloth with a half a dozen metal pieces and the bulk of the servo.**

 **"Hey, Jaune!" she decided to make herself known to her best friend. Not expecting anyone to be here, he jumped and nearly knocked a few things off of his workbench. He looked at Ruby with wide eyes but soon calmed with his hand on his chest.**

 **"Oum, Ruby. Don't do that, you nearly gave me a heart attack."**

 **She giggled sheepishly, "Sorry but you usually are more aware though."**

 **He sighed, "I'm trying to get all the metal pieces that broke off of the servo before I put the new one in. You know the deal with mecha shifting weapons, mine may not be as advanced as most but the flaws are still there." She nodded, if one little thing was out of place in a mecha shifting weapon it could easily damage the weapon further or possibly damage them beyond repair.**

"One of the reasons why I used this mace," noted Cardin, lifting up his weapon. "It's solid metal with a Dust crystal in the heart."

"But it has no versatility," Sun pointed out. "Complex weapons have much more versatility if compared to a solid metal weapon."

"Mr Wukong is right," Ironwood stepped in. "Although both of you have solid reasoning. When choosing your weapon you must always keep in mind both the benefits of mechashift's versatility, and of fullmetal's reliability." He glanced at them. "And before you ask, fullmetal is forging with no machinery."

"Just full metal," completed Winter. "It's the so-called 'normal' or 'original' metalworking."

"A mechashift still gets jammed," quipped Cardin.

"A fullmetal can't turn into rifle," retorted Sun.

 **"Do you need help?" she decided to offer him.**

 **Jaune just smiled at her but shook his head, "I appreciate the offer, Ruby, but I prefer to do this on my own. I should be the one to fix it, you know, they're kinda my responsibilities." He looked back at his weapons with a small smile. She nodded and liked the look that Jaune had. It was the look of pride that someone had in an accomplishment. Similar to what she had for Crescent Rose.**

 **"Okay, Jaune. I'll leave you to it." She smiled and walked past him to the workbench right next to him and started working on Crescent Rose. It was about a half an hour later and Ruby looked over to Jaune. She noticed he had pulled out a few more pieces of metal and was now looking into the inner workings with a flashlight to be sure he got them all. Ruby then looked at the broken servo and back at his swords. They all seemed perfectly fine, especially considering that the servo was damaged so badly. She didn't want to bother Jaune when he was concentrating but her curiosity won out, again.**

 **"Hey Jaune, can I ask you a question?"**

 **Without looking up he answered her, "You kinda did, Ruby." He soon put down the flashlight and turned to her with a smirk, he was convinced he got all the metal pieces out. "What's the question?"**

 **"How come your sheathes and swords weren't damaged by Weiss' Glyph but the servo was?"**

 **"The metal that the sheathes are made of is almost indestructible. It's rare but I was able to make the sheathes out of it, so they withstood the high gravity. And because the swords were inside the sheathes, they couldn't get too warped." He picked up the servo and tossed it into the air before catching it. "The servo isn't as resistant though."**

"That explains why it broke," Goodwitch chipped in. "Although I'm surprised, it's not everyday you see a weapon break."

Ozpin nodded slowly, but his thoughts were elsewhere. Or rather, elsewho. His gaze fell on Team RWBY, the four girls as silent as Team JN… Team -NPR. He sighed and looked at Jaune. Not even he had been allowed to come near the boy, but it didn't take magic to use his Aura sense, and his Aura sense told him the boy's Aura wasn't coming back. It hadn't even started to heal the trauma. Either his Aura was busy or blocked or… his soul had already left his body, and his Aura had gone with it.

He shook his head and returned to look at the four girls before clearing his throat. "Team RWBY… did you learn what Mr Arc wanted you to learn?" They all nodded, but Ozpin wasn't done. After all the effort Jaune had put in that fight, it was only fair for them to expand their answers. "Please then, elaborate your answer."

Yang just continued to cry, and the other three exchanged a weary and heavy look. Finally, Blake spoke up. "I learned that even though my Semblance allows me to dodge virtually any hit, I use it far too much, and against fast opponents who can move quickly, even my Semblance can't protect me completely," she stated slowly, her mind going back to how she had barely been able to go near Pyrrha. "My aggressive fighting style leaves many openings for my opponents to exploit, and I rely too much on my Semblance for the defence."

"I rely on my Semblance too," added Ruby. "Crescent Rose can pack a mean punch but I just don't have the strength to change course after I start attacking, even using my Semblance doesn't always help. If someone were to use that against me like Ren did, I'd have no hopes of winning."

"As for me, I cannot actually do anything without my Semblance," sighed Weiss, looking at Myrtenaster. "I can use Dust for ranged fights but I still mostly use my Semblance to give myself an advantage over my opponent. Without it… I'd be pretty much 'screwed', as Yang would say."

"Ms Xiao Long?" Ozpin turned his eyes on the blonde brawler of the team. She didn't respond, instead silently crying in her hands. " _Ms Xiao Long?_ "

She looked up with tear-stained cheeks and stared at him. "I _rush in headlong_ , I _think I'm so strong_ , and _there ain't no stopping me_ ," she bitterly semi-quoted the song earlier. "I think that sums it up pretty nicely, doesn't it? Oh, and apparently I rely on my Semblance to defeat the opponents that are managing to deal me damage."

Ozpin inwardly sighed at her tone, so filled with self-loathing, but he accepted her response. It wouldn't have been fair to force her to go on.

 **Ruby nodded and Jaune began the task of installing a brand new servo. Even though he has done this countless times before, he had to be careful to not make any mistakes. Halfway through with his task, Ruby brought up another question. "So if they break constantly, why didn't you make the servo out of the same metal as the sheathes?"**

 **Jaune didn't look up from his task but answered all the same, "The metal is pretty heavy. Making the servo out of the metal would've slowed down the speed and would take more time for the sheathes to move into position. But in the same regard, a too light of a metal wouldn't be able to deal with the weight either." He was almost done installing the servo at this point, "Luckily though, I was able to find a metal that was light enough to not slow down the sheathes but strong enough that it could take the strain. They still burn out but I can't do anything about that though." He stood up straight and tested to see if the sheathes were working again. To his satisfaction, they were as good as new. "Perfect!"**

 **Ruby was done fine tuning her weapon as well and was packing up. Until she saw Jaune still looking at his swords, deep in thought. "What's up, Jaune?"**

 **He turned to her and decided to answer her. "Trying to think of a way to improve on my swords for the future."**

 **This may have been a mistake because Ruby went wide eye and started shaking. "Let me help! It would be so cool to work on your swords! Please!? We could configure them to turn into rifles! Or maybe something cooler!" She was practically jumping up and down at this point until Jaune put his hand on her head.**

A few chuckled at Ruby's exaggerated enthusiasm. Qrow remembered one time he had mentioned doing some maintenance on his weapon before going to sleep, and the morning after he had found out that Ruby had added several new modes to it, including a spear, a toothbrush, a railgun, a cookie-making machine, and milk distributor. To that day, he still hadn't understood how she had done it.

Seeing the Swordsman about to go through his very own plight was going to be funny.

"Apparently, you are you in all universes," said Weiss, stating the obvious, making Ruby blush a little in embarrassment. "Let's just hope the rest of the viewing won't be about you and your shenanigans with weapons."

"Shena-what now?" asked Ruby, tilting her head to the side.

"She means she'd like not to see you gushing over weapons and designing over-the-top new functions for the Swordsman's swords," patiently explained Blake. "Honestly, I share that feeling. No offence meant, Ruby, but… not everyone loves talking about and sketching weapons for hours like you do."

 **"Whoa, Ruby. Calm down." He smiled at her. "I would love some help but I don't want anything too out there. So, can you back up a bit on that train of yours?" She looked sheepish because she lost it but nodded. He then ruffled her hair and she blushed slightly. "Thank you."**

 **She than stood next to him and looked at his weapons with him, "So, what do you want to do?"**

 **"Well, I originally designed them to link together to form longswords to help with my Semblance when I use an Advance Element, but you already know this." She nodded. "Now that I know that I can fuse three elements together and I've been working on mastering Particle, I wanna incorporate it into my swords to use when its ready."**

 **She nodded, "So, what's the major issue?"**

 **"Here, I'll show you." He pulled out Kakiri and Fukiri and laid them done on the table with their dull sides facing each other. "See they were originally only designed to only link two together. They link up like this to form the longsword. But because of the way I designed them, it's impossible to combine three swords. Also, I don't wanna reforge all my swords yet. It'd be too time consuming and I have no idea on any other Exceed Elements."**

"That's gonna be a pain in the ass to solve," winced Sun. "No way you can make all swords to be able to combine into longswords while at the same time making them able to attach three together into… whatever kind of sword three would form."

"I believe they are going to find a solution," commented Ozpin, calm as ever, sipping his mug. "Ms Rose's ability in weaponsmithing are exceptional, and if the Swordsman designed his swords already, I do believe such a small problem won't stop them from reaching their goal."

Ruby smiled a little at the praise. "Thanks Professor!"

 **Ruby nodded and thought carefully. Jaune and her were deep in thought for a few minutes. Suddenly, Ruby got an idea and clapped her hands together. "What if we only reforge one sword?" Jaune looked at her and motioned for her to continue. "What if we take one of the three swords you would need for the combo and reforge it into a broadsword?" She grabbed a piece of paper and quickly sketched a broadsword with two single edged short swords on either side of it. "See? With the broadsword you could connect the other two on the sides. We would just need to make the blade longer and reconfigure the hilt."**

 **Jaune looked at the paper for a while and thought it over. He then turned to her with a huge smile. "I love that brain of yours!" She smiled brightly at that. "Although, I need to see if we have the metal to increase the length of the blade." He walked over to all the storeroom that contained all the metals for the forge. "Looks like there's just enough!" He shouted before emerging with a few bars of metal. He set them on the workbench closest to the forge and started to get the fire ready. "I'll grab my swords in a second." He told Ruby.**

 **"Don't worry, I got them." Ruby replied.**

 **It took Jaune a second for what she said to click. "Uh, Ruby, that may not be a…."**

 **He was cut off when he heard, "Wah!" That was all she yelled before he heard metal hit the floor and then what sounded like a person following afterwards. He turned to find his swords in their sheathes on the floor with Ruby laying on the ground as well. She soon sat up and was rubbing her nose.**

 **"Good idea." Jaune sighed before going over to her. "I tried to warn you."**

 **"How do you carry them? They weigh a ton." She said in a slightly muffled voice as she was still rubbing her nose.**

"Those must be really heavy if I couldn't lift them," commented Ruby, surprised.

"No, you were probably taken off-guard by their weight as you expected them to be lighter," Winter waved her off nonchalantly. "It happens to the best of us. Although you should've asked for permission or at least confirmation before touching his weapons."

"That sounds so wrong…" groaned Qrow, earning a glare from Winter and a 'eep' from Ruby.

"Still, those must be heavy…" commented Blake. "Jaune did say that the sheaths are made from a very resistant but very heavy material. Those might even weight ten pounds for each sword…"

"Fifty pounds? If so, then our Jaune is lifting much more. His weapon is slightly more than two pounds for the sword and five pounds the shield, but he's got a full plate armour!" exclaimed Nora, still cradling her unconscious brother's head on her lap. "The chainmail weights around forty pouds by itself, plus the plating that are around another forty or so, Big Brother always has nearly ninety pounds on when he fights!"

"Was that a competition?" asked Ironwood, raising an eyebrow. Goodwitch shrugged at him as if to say 'it's always a competition'.

 **"How do you think I got these muscles? The muscle fairy?" He joked before he knelt down in front of her. "You okay?"**

 **She nodded but was still holding her nose. "My nose hurts a little though." He could tell her eyes were watering at this point.**

 **"Let me see?" She slowly took her hand away and Jaune looked at her nose. It was red but that was all. He was relieved. "It doesn't look bruised so it should feel better soon. Want me to kiss it to make it feel better?" He gave her a teasing smirk.**

 **Ruby blushed before she gave him an annoyed look with the blush still present. "You've been hanging out with Yang too much."**

 **Jaune chuckled and stood up before offering his hand to her, "I thought you loved your sister?"**

 **She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet, "I do. But I don't need a second one."**

 **Jaune leaned down to pick up his swords, "I couldn't be Yang. She has a few things I don't and they are so soft."**

Everyone, literally everyone, gawked at that, dumbstruck.

 **Ruby blushed deeper at that, "Jaune! You can't talk about my sister like that!"**

 **Jaune looked at her confused, "Why not? Her hair is soft. Besides, I don't think I could pull off the long hair look." He smirked at her and she realized what he did and she was further annoyed and blushed even deeper. He laughed at his own joke and she was getting less happy by the second.**

"Ha, you done goofed!" laughed Cardin at Ruby's expenses. "He totally trolled you!"

"Very funny," she muttered, annoyance flashing in her silver eyes.

"Come on Ruby, it was a good prank," grinned Sun. "You can't deny you totally fell for it."

"That doesn't make it more entertaining, thank you!"

 **"You're not funny!" She yelled and pouted angrily.**

 **Jaune stopped laughing at that. He walked over to her and pulled her into a side hug, "I'm sorry, Ruby. Can you forgive me?" She was quiet for a second before looking up at him and sighing. She nodded. Jaune smiled and kissed the top of her head. "I knew you loved me." He said cheerfully and walked the two of them over to the forge. Meanwhile, Ruby was blushing and thinking about that. 'Do I love Jaune?!'**

 **The two started to get to work after that. Jaune decided to reforge Kakiri, due to the fact that he usually used his enhanced strength when wielding it and with it located in the middle of the sheathes, it wouldn't upset the balance of the sheathes weight. Jaune removed all the dust from the handle and put it into a vial before setting it to the side. They then removed the circuits from the blade and the blade itself from the handle. Jaune started to stoke the forge and when it was ready, added the blade and metal bars to melt them down. Around that time, they were getting hungry and Ruby offered to grab them food from the cafeteria. When she returned, she saw that Jaune had taken off his hoodie and had only his black shirt on. She blushed when she realized how much more of his muscles she could see. They took a break to eat before resuming their work.**

 **Jaune stayed at the forge to keep it at the proper temperature. He also used his Semblance to help with the task. Meanwhile, Ruby offered to reconfigure the hilt. Jaune agreed because out of everyone at the school, Ruby was one of the only people he'd trust with his weapon. When she was close to finishing the hilt, Jaune was pouring out the molten metal into the shape of the new blade. Once the metal was ready, he started working the metal until it felt right to him before he started to sharpen the blade. When they were both done, they reconnecting the hilt back onto the blade. They then began the long process of installing the circuits for the dust. With both their expertise, the process took a lot less time but was still very slow and time consuming. But soon the sword was now done.**

"That's pretty different from his other swords," noted Sun. "Is he gonna be okay using it?"

"If I've learned something about Jaune, it's that he's resourceful in all universes," Blake smiled enigmatically and looked at the screen. "We just have to wait a little, and I'm sure he'll handle the change in the sword's length and weight."

"We shall see," scoffed Neptune, crossing his arms on his chest. "Arc's not nearly as 'resourceful' as you say he is."

"I bet three thousands Lien he manages," rebutted Ren, without even blinking. "And before you ask no, I don't have three thousands Lien, but I'm more than sure I won't lose that bet."

"Bet accepted," grinned Neptune, already imagining the money in his pockets.

 **Jaune picked up the sword and gave it a few practice swings. It felt different but felt right in his hands. He added the fire dust back into the handle and activated it. The edges and circuits started to glow the usual red. Soon the sword blade was surrounded in flames and Jaune just smiled. He was going to love using the new and improved Kakiri. "Feels great." Ruby smiled at that and Jaune went over to the workbench to draw Fukiri and Dokiri. "Time to see if this works." He connected the three blades together and they formed a bastard sword. He gave a few practice swings, he wasn't used to the new weight and length of this new combination. "Well, it works but I'm gonna have to practice with this before it feels right." He looked back to Ruby with a smile, "Thank you, Ruby. I owe you a batch of cookies."**

 **She tried to wave it off, "You don't need to, Jaune. It was fun!" She said cheerfully.**

 **"That mean you don't want them?" he asked knowing the answer.**

 **She looked down sheepishly, "Well, if you feel like it."**

 **Jaune chuckled, "I never mind, Ruby."**

 **She smiled brightly before she thought of something, "What are you going to name it?"**

 **He looked it over for a second, "I think Jinkiri has a nice ring to it." Ruby just nodded and Jaune disassembled Jinkiri before sheathing Fukiri and Dokiri. Ruby realized that Kakiri's sheathe was too small now and was about to point this out to Jaune. But he simply put Kakiri on the table and pulled out his scroll. He tapped away on it for a few seconds and Kakiri's sheathed detached from the others. He moved it to the side and started to type more into his scroll and soon the sheathe started to shift to the new size of the blade. Ruby stared in awe. "Because I like to improve my weapons, Mother had me meet an old friend of her's. He's a genius with technology and made the sheathes out of hundreds of tiny machines made from the metal, so I could easily adjust them if I need to." Ruby nodded. Jaune put away the new Kakiri and reattached the sheathes back together.**

"But wouldn't that ruin the whole 'semi indestructible' thing?" asked Blake, who didn't really know everything about weapons.

Of course, Ruby was the one to reply. "Well, it depends on how you use them. Theoretically all matter is just a bunch of small pieces pushed together. Matter is made of molecules and molecules are made of atoms -I don't know what atoms are made of though-, but we don't fall to pieces," explained Ruby. She didn't know it was because of the atom's complex gravitational and electromagnetic forces, but the example still stood. "If you can build them able to move, but also able to attach solidly to the others, there is nothing that keeps you from doing something like that. Except that you'd need a very hard metal, or hits would bent, destroy or at least ruin the individual machines."

"I bet you thought of something like that for Crescent Rose, right?" asked Weiss.

"Well…" Ruby poked her indexes together. "It would've been cool to have a weapon that literally forms itself in your hand, and is still solid. Badass and all that, you know?"

 **They left after that and headed to the dorms. It was about ten now and they wanted to sleep. Jaune had his hoodie over his shoulder and Ruby had a few questions she still wanted to ask him. "Jaune, can I ask a couple more questions?" He nodded slightly tired. "Why do you use tradition knight swords when your master used katanas?"**

 **"My family always used traditional weaponry or weapons that looked traditional. I decided that I wanted to carry on the tradition. Although, I do know how to fight with a katana."**

 **Ruby nodded, "Have you ever used any other weapon besides a sword?"**

 **"I used to use a dagger I 'borrowed' from my father when I left home. Had it for a while but it eventually broke. Kinda a shame, I would still use it if I still had it."**

 **They were almost at their rooms now and Ruby had one last question. She stopped in the hall and Jaune stopped as well and looked at her confused. Ruby was looking down sheepishly with a mild blush "Why don't you give me a nickname? Everyone else on my team has one?"**

 **Jaune was taken back, "You want a nickname?" Ruby nodded. Jaune thought for a second, "How about Rosebud?"**

 **She looked up at him slightly confused, "Why Rosebud?"**

 **"Well, I think it suits you. You're still young but in the future, there is no telling how beautiful you'll be. Just like a rosebud. Plus, no matter how beautiful the rose, they always have thorns. Like our resident reaper." Ruby blushed fully and stared at him and Jaune was concerned, "Do you not like it?"**

 **She quickly shook her head, "NO no no! I like it! Thank you, Jaune." She said happily.**

 **He smiled, "No problem. Well, good night, Rosebud." Was the last thing he said before he went into his room. Ruby smiled brightly before going into her own. She changed into her pajamas and laid down in her bed. She smiled happily while thinking, 'I don't know if I love Jaune but I'm happy to be his Rosebud.' That what she thought before falling asleep.**

"To be honest, nothing against the Swordsman's nickname, but I prefer Jaune's," smiled Ruby. Despite her preferences, she was happy her other self was noticing the Swordsman.

"I'm pretty sure a large part of it is just because he's your boyfriend," Ozpin smiled as well, a fatherly look reaching his face as he looked at her. "But you probably prefer not to be reminded you're younger than the others. While it might be true, it's also true that you are more or less as mature as the others, and that you can face challenges just like your peers, even if they are two years your seniors." His smile remained warm for a second before it turned mischievous. "But I still think you like 'Gemshine' more mainly because your boyfriend gave you that nickname."

Ruby blushed brightly at that, but she didn't deny the statement. For a few minutes, they just waited in silence, not really knowing what to talk about, nor what to do. Neptune and Sun went to the training rooms with Cardin to have some warm-up work-out before sparring a little, but no one in Team -NPR and RWBY wanted to follow them. Not after what had happened in the arena.

"Guys…" Nora's voice rang out after a few minutes, making them all look at her, but she ignored them. She was carefully looking at the boy she still cradled like the most fragile of dolls. At first, they didn't see anything, but then they saw Nora's hand on his neck, and realization slowly dawned on them. "I… I can feel Big Brother's pulse. I… I think he's waking up…"

Jaune groaned slowly and furrowed his brows, before trying to rise. Since Nora kept him down, he tried to fight back her grip, but he was too weakened, and even in top shape Nora would've won. As he was, even Ruby would've been able to keep him down. Finally, his eyes slowly opened, no more dull, instead a shockingly clear crystal blue, like the sparkling water of a river.

"Bloody hell, that hurt…"

 ** _I'm keeping this brief since over here it's 0:22 in the night. Yeah, I'm crazy, I know._**

 ** _So, Jaune's eyes are now how they are in V4 and further, no more deep blue but water azure. Argh, in Italian we have different words for it but English doesn't. "Blu" means "blue", but "azzurro" means "light blue"/"sky blue". So yeah, now Jaune has V4 eye colour._**

 ** _Anyway, as you can see Jaune did not go from unskilled to omnipotent. Nope. He still has to train. But yeah, flying is kind of unfair, eheh._**

 ** _And we shall see the following discussion later. As for Nora's anger, she already lost her family. I don't think she'd take well losing anyone else. She doesn't hate Yang, she's just venting her anger on her since she was the one who hit Jaune. And yes, it's actually Jaune's fault since he could've just allowed Ren to tank the hit as Ren would've been able to withstand it. So no raining hate on me for having Yang being a murderer, and no raining hate on Yang because she hit Jaune. She didn't want to._**

 ** _Oh, and yeah, she did kill him. His heart stopped (more like was caved in) and all of that. What can I say, Phoenix and I are Writers. Details like death matter not to us. And this is a reaction fic, so it's all for the sake of the plot, not for suspense._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	26. Chapter 25

**_Hey guys! Sorry for the long time with no updates, but life's been hectic. My brother is unsufferable, really. Who does he think he is, spitting over the entire family's efforts and calling US bad for doing the things HE should do too instead of remaining locked in his room?! Argh, stupid brat. If he doesn't want to grow up, then I'll just ignore his whining until he grows. Plus he's SO annoying... his only facial expressions are 'smug', 'arrogant', 'obnoxious', 'annoyed at me for being right', 'I'm a victim/the world hates me/everyone hates me' and 'totally uninterested'. How can someone be so careless and yet demand so much care?!_**

 ** _Here is the chapter, anyway._**

All the seven students crowded around Jaune as he slowly sat up, still aided by Nora. He was still a bit dizzy, and there were little stars circling around his head. "Okay, okay, ouch, I feel like having gone hand-to-hand against a Goliath. Alpha version, too. What the hell happ-wait, I know what happened. The fight. Yeah. That. Is everyone okay?"

"You idiot!" exclaimed Weiss, resisting the temptation to slap him across the face. "You wake up after a solid hour of coma with lack of heartbeat and the first thing you ask is 'is everyone okay?'?! Are you insane!"

"He just woke up, Weiss, he might still be confused," Blake pointed out, trying to calm down the white-haired girl. "Give him some space."

Weiss huffed and stepped back, leaving Ruby to Semblance her way over to Jaune and hug him with all her strength. Jaune was knocked into the fountain's basin, with Ruby following straight after, but they surfaced immediately afterwards. "Hello to you too, Gemshine," smiled Jaune returning the hug as she turned crimson red. "What did I miss?"

"Well, the Swordsman forged a new sword, Jinkiri. He reforged Kakiri into a greatsword so to allow two swords to attach to it instead of just one. And, he gave Ruby a new nickname, 'Rosebud', while she started to realize her crush on him," explained Ren. "We also learned how his swords' sheaths are nigh-indestructible, while the servo isn't. He repaired it and then reconfigured the sheath to hold Kakiri's new size."

"Yang killed you."

Everyone fell silent as Nora spoke up, deadly serious. Yang was looking down, but any observant person would've been able to see the tears starting to gather in her eyes. Nora, on the other hand, had her arms crossed over her chest, and was glaring harshly at the blonde. "She caved your chest in, and crushed your heart. You _died_. You're alive only because Phoenix chose to put this healing water here. Otherwise, you would've stayed _dead_."

Jaune looked toward Yang, who nodded slowly. "I-I…"

"It's not just Yang's fault," Ren cut in, facing his childhood friend with crossed arms. "I could've taken that blow. Sure, it would've probably knocked me in the red, but I could've taken it. It was also Jaune's mistake to take the hit." The blond knight chuckled sheepishly at that. "Yang couldn't have known he would've thrown himself in between."

"But still, this does not mean Yang's without fault!" exclaimed the carrottop. "She-"

This time it was Nora who got interrupted, by Jaune nonetheless. "Ren's right, it was my fault. We all know that was a spar we _all_ wanted to win, so let's not persecute Yang just because she wanted to do at least something." He rubbed his chest. "Still, I'll have to repeat myself. Bloody hell, that hurt."

Yang lowered her head. "I-I'm sorry. It won't happen ever again," she told them. "I… I asked Ozpin to seal my Aura."

The reactions she got were immediate.

Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha gasped, while Ren's, Nora's and Weiss's eyes widened. Blake, though, reacted by grabbing Yang by her shoulders and forcing her to look at the brunette. "No! A single event is _not_ going to have you ask Ozpin to seal your Aura. You are not a danger," she exclaimed heatedly. "What about _me?_ A former terrorist! I would deserve that way more than you."

"Blake, I-"

"Don't 'Blake' me, Yang! I stand by what I said! If you think _you_ should get your Aura locked, then so should I. I have done things _on purpose_ , yours was a mistake. Who is more criminal, now?" Blake glared at Yang with fire in her eyes. "You are _not_ going to have your Aura sealed."

"But I-"

"Blake's right, but that's not the only reason," interjected Jaune, wobbling slightly as he stood up. "You also saved us, Team JNPR, from committing the same mistake you guys did."

"Huh?"

"Pride. We were all being prideful. Hell, I spouted so much about your pride and yet I was prideful too. I just behaved in a different way of prideful," he grinned weakly. "You guys believed yourself invincible. But remember my words? _We_ too believed ourselves invincible. We thought that there was no chance for you to win if we followed our plan. Hadn't you done this, we would've ended up badly."

"What do you mean?" asked Pyrrha, confused.

"Remember my words. 'I want everyone of them to be down at the end, and everyone of us to be still up.' If that's not being prideful, nothing is. In my desire to teach them, I forgot about our, _my_ own pride. And hadn't Yang knocked me out the way she did, that pride would've stuck," explained the boy. "We would've just exchanged places, with RWBY as the humble team and us as the prideful one. But this taught us humility as well. So thank you, Yang."

Yang stared at him, dumbfounded. "W-What?"

"Besides, I knew Phoenix wasn't just gonna allow me to die. Heck, _he_ killed me several times during our 'spar', only to 'resurrect' me every time. And let me tell you, that hurt like hell, much more than this." Jaune grumbled about Phoenix for a bit longer before Yang interrupted him.

"B-But… But I'm impulsive, I…"

"Yep, you are impulsive, and that's not something I would ever change," Jaune smiled back, his previous Phoenix-induced mood vanishing in a second. "The way you're just so free with your emotions, Yang, honestly it's charming to watch, it never fails to make my da-umphf!"

He couldn't continue as Yang forcefully tackled him back into the fountain. No one really had time to see what had happened, but when she dragged the two of them's heads out of the water, they were already kissing. Or maybe still kissing. Jaune also had a shocked expression on his face, but he was quickly melting into the kiss.

Qrow just groaned in defeat a few yards away.

The screen flashed a cocky _**DRAGONSLAYER ACHIEVED**_.

When the two finally separated, Jaune was quite shocked, although not extremely surprised, while Yang was just grinning widely. "I… I still think that was my fault, but now? Now I don't give a damn, I'm taking Phoenix's advise and everyone who is against it can ask me, and I'll give them a one-way ticket to Hell," she stated heatedly. "So let me get this off my chest, there's already enough stuff on there."

Shooting him a saucy wink and immensely enjoying his expression, she continued. "I really really like you. Not sure if it's love or whatever but I'm not one for philosophy, in case you haven't noticed. You're so good with both me and my sister, you'd make for a good boyfriend, plus you're always bright and cheerful and helpful and… and…" She blushed and leaned forwards, but still whispered loud enough for all the close ones to hear. "…and I've got my hands on a few pics that _really_ show how you would be able to handle even _five_ girls with that big sword of yours, am I right, _knight_?"

While everyone blushed, no more did so more than Jaune. His face was turning darker than Pyrrha's hair, and he apparently had trouble breathing. Obviously that had _nothing_ to do with the fact Yang was straddling him. Of course it didn't. Who even thought that?

However, Yang quickly found herself _ripped_ away from Jaune and dragged to the edge of the chasm before being forcefully turned around, meeting four dark pairs of eyes. Silver, ice, amber and emerald stared into lilac for a few seconds before amber spoke. "You are going to share those pics."

" _Especially_ with me, since I am Jaune's girlfriend," added silver.

"And don't even think about using PhotoSchnee to modify them," growled emerald.

"Name any price," completed ice.

Yang laughed nervously as the four girls continued to stare at her. "Err… guys? Guys~? _Guys~?_ Some help?"

But the 'guys' had their own problems, aka Qrow Branwen trying to bypass Ren and Nora to talk with Jaune. Thanks to his Semblance, Nora slipped on a pillow and caught herself on Ren's arms, making him lose his balance. The two of them tumbled to the ground, basically touching noses, and remained frozen in embarrassment while Qrow fished Jaune out of the fountain he was hiding in. "Here you are, kiddo. Didn't think you could hold your breath for that long."

"The water is magic so not to drown me…" mumbled the soaked knight.

Qrow snorted in amusement before catching himself. "Hey kiddo, gotta talk with you 'bout something." The Huntsman took a swig from his flask before continuing. "Since you're so hellbent on becoming a Huntsman, let's get you on par with the rest. I'm gonna train you."

"Err…" Jaune laughed nervously, just like Yang. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course! Are you doubting my teaching skills?" Out of hurt pride, Qrow pointed at Ruby, who froze like a child caught with their hands in the cookie jar, hiding her Scroll behind her back. "I'll remind you that Ruby sucked before I trained her, and in just two years I turned her into a prodigy!"

"Jeez, thanks uncle," mumbled the mentioned girl.

"Yeah, you got a point but that's not what I meant…" muttered Jaune, rubbing his neck.

"And what did you mean?"

"It was more along the lines of 'are you sure letting me 'train' with the uncle of the two girls I'm dating, who is very protective of them, is a good idea?', to be honest," admitted the boy, shrinking slightly at Qrow's glare. "Case and point…"

"Bah! If we were in Remnant, I'd probably kick your ass for that, but here?" Qrow gestured around, pointedly ignoring the fact there was a very big flaming hammer just over his head, ready to smack him in case he tried to attack Jaune. Phoenix's symbol was imprinted on the side of the hammerhead. "With that scary-ass Phoenix and that other guy, the houseowner, watching my every move, ready to kick _my_ ass if I try to harm you for dating those two? I'd be crazy to try anything."

"Thank Oum…"

"That being said, I'm not going easy on ya." Qrow grinned widely as the hammer hesitated for a second before vanishing. "I'll make you regret ever coming to this world. Unfortunately, we have a viewing to attend to now. Let's get done with this so we can start our… training."

"Uncle, no threatening my boyfriend!" exclaimed Ruby with a pout, latching onto Jaune's right arm.

"No threatening mine, either!" added Yang, grabbing the other.

Qrow's eye twitched, but aside from that, he showed a surprising lack of response. "Sure…"

And with that, the screen started up.

 **It was the next morning and Jaune decided it would be one of the rare occasions that he'd sleep in. He had nothing to do today and after reforging Kakiri with assistance from Ruby, he felt like he earned it. He was enjoying the peace until life decided to throw a wrench into his plans. That wrench being the one and only Nora Valkyrie.**

 **"Wake up, Fearless Leader!" She shouted as she belly flopped onto Jaune. He had the air knocked out of him and was knocked off onto the floor. He was groaning as he stood up and just stared at Nora as she sat on his bed in her pajamas with a proud smile on her face.**

Nora laughed at the scene while Ren, Jaune and Pyrrha all sighed. "I should do that too!" exclaimed the hyperactive redhead.

"No!" Jaune shouted in panic, trying to sit up but finding himself held down by Ruby, who had reclaimed her rightful seat on his lap. "Don't let her! It's gonna end in tragedy! Like that time she woke up Pyrrha early!"

Ren and Nora cringed while Pyrrha shrank and blushed. Everyone looked questioningly at them, and the ninja of JNPR sighed before explaining. "It was horrible. Nora thought it would've been funny to wake Pyrrha up for once since she's always up and ready before everyone else, so one Sunday she woke her up before Pyrrha's usual Sunday 9 AM," he narrated before shivering. "Pyrrha didn't recover for the whole day. She was like a zombie, drained of all life or energy. Thankfully we didn't have much homework, because she got _all_ answers wrong and her history essay was literally 'Mountain Glenn: Mountain Glenn is fucking abandoned.' You can guess how serious it was."

"Yeah…" said Yang, eyeing the champion. "Not a morning person, huh?"

"Not on Sundays," she groaned. "I wake up at 5:30 every day and train until 8, when everyone else wakes up. Recently Jaune joins me at 6. At least on Sundays, I want to _sleep_."

 **"Nora, why? I never sleep in, so why would you wake me up?" He asked tiredly and bummed that he was woken up.**

 **Nora tilted her head and thought for a second before she shrugged, "Because I never get to wake you up. So I can't resist to do it when I can." She said with her usual smile. Jaune wiped a hand down his face and sighed, it was too soon to deal with Nora with this much energy. He hadn't even gotten his coffee yet. He looked to see Pyrrha already dressed and at her desk reading. He could also hear the shower going and realized that's where Ren was. "By the way, Jaune, what happened to you yesterday? You just disappeared and didn't come back til late. You weren't off on another adventure without us again, right?" She stood on his bed and pointed an accusing finger at him.**

 **Jaune just rolled his eyes before grabbing the tip of her finger with his index and thumb. As she looked at her finger confused, he smirked and pulled her legs out from under her. She fell onto the bed again and Jaune was on top of her with a pillow. "Wanna wake me up, huh?" he said with the same smirk before he started beating her with the pillow. Nora tried to get out from under Jaune but she couldn't and she couldn't reach for a pillow to use as her own weapon. She quickly looked to Pyrrha who was watching with a smile on her face.**

 **Nora quickly held her hand out to Pyrrha, "Pyrrha! Help me! You're my only hope!" Pyrrha looked at Nora then Jaune before she picked up her own pillow and threw it at Jaune like she would her shield. Jaune looked up just in time to have it hit him in the face. He fell off Nora and onto the floor, again. He looked at her from his spot on the floor, she was trying not to laugh.**

 **"Traitor." Was all he said before Pyrrha started to giggle and shrugged.**

"Ooooh, in-team pillow war!" exclaimed Nora, clapping her hands. "Can we do that?"

Her answer was a pillow in the face from Blake. "Only if you guys allow us to join."

"Pillow war? Seems fun," commented Sun as he, Neptune and Cardin returned to the rocky outcropping. "What did we mis-ooof!" He was cut off as four different pillows hit him square in the face, and he fell flat on his rear.

"Nope, this is a team-only war!" stated Nora.

"So does this mean we can't participate?" asked Yang, disappointed as hell, still holding up her pillow. "Aww…"

"Of course you can, we _are_ a team," Jaune smiled disarmingly at everyone. "My dad always said that teams aren't made of four or five or whatever people, but by your friends. Beacon put us in teams of four but that doesn't mean anything. We eight are a team, no matter what."

"Yeah, Team RVBYJSPR!" exclaimed Ruby. "Spelled as Ruby Jasper! Since, you know, 'ruby' can also mean the colour…"

"I love that name! Besides, if Team CRDL can use 'L' of 'Lark', the surname, we can use 'V' and 'S', right?" Jaune pecked Ruby on the forehead, making her blush crimson. "Thanks for the name, Gemshine."

Yang tugged his sleeve. "I want a nickname too!"

"I'll think on it," he replied vaguely before being hit in the face by a pillow. "Okay, Yang and Ruby, you're with me. I can't bring myself to fight someone I'm dating. Let's teach them a-" Another pillow. "-lesson!"

"Banzai!"

 **He quickly looked up and saw Nora jumping into the air with the pillow above her head. "Nora Bomb!" is what she shouted as she was coming down. Jaune's eyes widened and he quickly rolled under his bed before Nora landed on him. While she was distracted he rolled under the bed right next to his, which happened to be Pyrrha's, and waited. Nora was tip toeing around his bed until she was between Jaune's and Pyrrha's.**

 **"Oh, Jaune!" she said in a sing song voice. "Come on out, I won't hurt you." She started to lean down to look under his bed but as soon as she did, Jaune's hands shot out from under Pyrrha's bed and grabbed her ankles. She yelped in surprise before Jaune started to pull her under Pyrrha's bed. As soon as she was under the bed, Jaune started to tickle her relentlessly. All you could hear was Nora laughing like a madwoman and Jaune chuckling evilly. Soon Nora's hands shot out from under the foot of Pyrrha's bed and started to pull herself out while she was still laughing. She looked to Pyrrha again. "Save me!" she was trying to say through her laughing fit.**

Everyone seemed to freeze with their pillow raised. Helios, who had been denied to join since he couldn't count as team member, whined in curiosity. The adults sighed, content that the chaos had ended.

 **She started to get pulled back under with Jaune saying in a cliché evil voice, "There's no escape for you, Miss Valkyrie." Nora started to claw at the carpet trying to stop herself from being pulled back down into that tickle hell.**

 **"No! Please, Jaune, I'm sorry! Please, forgive me!" She shouted in a last attempt to be freed. She stopped being pulled and she relaxed slightly. Until a sudden yank pulled her back under.**

"Tickle war!" declared Jaune, grabbing Nora and starting to tickle her mercilessly. Time seemed to slow down as everyone chose a target, much to the adults' chagrin.

A few seconds later, Yang released Ruby to save Blake from Pyrrha, who had tackled her partner head-on. Nora had been let off the hook from Jaune only for Ren to cut in, holding her over his head as he tickled her, while Weiss was trying to keep herself out of it. As soon as Yang loosened her grip, Ruby darted toward her partner and dragged her, screaming, into the mess. Jaune capitalized on that by grabbing a distracted Blake from Yang's grip and starting to tickle her.

It all ended when Weiss used Myrtenaster to freeze everyone in place.

"Party pooper…" muttered Nora.

 **"Never!" was all Jaune shouted before he started to resume his tickling. Pyrrha was just laughing at the two. Ren soon exited the bathroom and heard the laughing but couldn't see his teammates. He looked to Pyrrha with a raised eyebrow and all she did was point under her bed. Ren just sighed and shook his head slightly with a small smile on his face. Soon the laughing stopped and Jaune climbed out from under the bed. He was dusting himself off with a smile on his face. He then went to get his clothes for the day.**

 **"So, Jaune. What did happen to you yesterday?" Pyrrha asked now that he was awake now and not tickling Nora to death.**

 **"I went to the forge to fix my sheathes." He pointed to them still on his desk. "Ruby showed up not long after that to work on Crescent Rose. After we were both done, she helped me improve my weapons."**

 **At this point, Nora was slowly dragging herself out from under the bed. She was breathing raggedly but slowly turned to Jaune, "You…you haven't improved them in a while…what did you do?" she asked tiredly.**

 **Jaune simply put his clothes on his bed before he went over to his desk. He put his right glove on and applied pressure with his middle finger and Kakiri's handle deployed. He drew it and showed his teammates. "We reforged Kakiri into a broadsword." He surrounded its blade in fire to show them. "And it looks so badass." He said with a smile.**

 **They all looked at it and agreed. "But why, Jaune?" Ren asked. "You seemed fine with the short sword version. Why change it?"**

 **Jaune just smirked before dismissing the flames. He drew Fukiri and attached it to Kakiri before doing the same with Dokiri. He turned around to show him his latest sword. "I needed to add a new sword to my collection. Jinkiri."**

 **All three just stared in awe. Nora quickly got up and ran before stopping in front of Jaune just staring at the bastard sword. "Wow. Jaune, it's so big. It's so long and so thick." she said this out loud in a mesmerized tone.**

"NORA!"

"What?" she asked innocently, earning incredulous looks. "You think I'm dumb? Of course I know how that might be misunderstood but come on, you shouldn't take everything at sex value!"

"Yes, but that…" Yang grimaced. "I have the feeling something bad will happen…"

 **Jaune was about to say something until their door flew open and Jaune reacted on instinct. He held his new sword to the throat of the intruder. Who appeared to be a wide eyed Weiss, just staring in shock at the blade at her neck. Jaune just sighed before he rested his sword on his shoulder. "Oum, Weiss, be careful. That could've gone bad. And why the hell did you kick our door in?" He motioned to the door. All Weiss did was just stare until RWBY's door opened up and the rest of her the team came out.**

 **"What is going on? Some of us were trying to sleep." Yang said slightly annoyed.**

 **Jaune shrugged, "Don't know. Weiss just kicked our door in and I almost tested my new blade on her." The other three girls looked to see his new sword. They were all shocked, Blake and Yang to see the new blade and Ruby to hear Weiss almost got hurt. Until everyone went back to looking at Weiss. She finally seemed to come back to reality.**

 **She cleared her throat nervously, "You were being loud. I was going to ask you to be quieter. But when I was about to knock, I heard Nora say something…. indecent. So my mind, jumped to a conclusion and before I knew it, I kicked your door in." She finished sheepishly and looked away.**

"Like that?" asked Nora.

"Like that," confirmed Yang, sighing. "That's… pretty embarrassing."

"At least you're not the one who kicked in their dormitory's door just because she's heard some interesting stuff," snorted Qrow, taking a swig from his flask. "Ice Queen Jr or not, she's still a hormonal teenager."

"As little as I like to agree with Qrow, he's unfortunately right," sighed Goodwitch, rubbing her forehead in annoyance as she was remembered of the _children_ she had as students. "Late teens to early twenties is _not_ the optimal age for training. One would think that combat school would smooth out some behaviours, but unfortunately our students come to Beacon as teenagers, not warriors."

"Better to ignore it than what happened during _our_ third year." Qrow shivered at the memory. "Do you remember Professor Luna?"

Ozpin choked on his coffee while Goodwitch paled at the name.

That intrigued the students. "Who is this Luna?" asked Yang.

"Professor Luna D'Argent, he was our Combat Instructor and Strategy Class." Qrow drank more alcohol. "He was terrifying. Even Raven was scared of him. Whenever he fought, he had a look in his eyes… it was like you were already dead." He shook his head to clear it. "That man was a genius. Heck, more than a genius, he was _incredible_. I never saw him being hit _once_. But what I was referring to is what got him fired. The Slaughter of Beacon."

"That doesn't sound good…" commented Pyrrha.

"It shouldn't. That man had a jaded view of the world, and he _hated_ when the students thought themselves invincible or were being childish, to the point he asked the Headmaster for a special test. Given his _incredible_ records, he was granted said permission." Qrow's gaze was empty for a second. "He brought _all_ the students in the Grimmlands. Those who asked him for help were expelled, but saved. He saved all the ones who asked… but there were also some who didn't."

The students shivered at the ominous tone, but Qrow wasn't done. "After the test, in all of Beacon's student body only ten or so teams remained. Most were expelled for having asked him for help, but some died by the Grimm. We survived by asking our peers for help. As he put it, 'It was a test to show you that you are far from invincible. Your enemy, the Grimm, is undefeatable. You aren't here to learn how to win. You are here to die. You are here to learn how to die fighting. This is a war you cannot win.'" The man shook himself. "He was fired, of course, but that single event taught us so much. _He_ taught us so much. That's why I say that a day out in the wilds is worth a day in a school, I learned that from him. He taught us that battles might be won by force, but wars have to be won by intelligence, or they will never be really won. He taught us to think out of the ordinary. His teachings saved my ass many times."

"What happened to him?" asked Jaune, curious about the man.

Qrow froze for a second before slowly drinking from his flask. "Last I heard, he had just disappeared. No one saw him again. Ever. He had vanished. I tried to find him to get him to teach Ruby but there were no traces."

 **Jaune just looking at her while her teammates were in disbelief. "Uh, I was just showing my team my new sword that Ruby helped me with." He looked over to her for a second. "I'll be baking you those cookies today by the way, Rosebud." He said with a smile and she had a light blush but smiled regardless. Jaune turned back to Weiss. "Besides, as I've stated before, there is nothing between me and Nora beside sibling love. Nothing romantic."**

 **Nora walked up next to him and hugged him, "Yeah! Jaune is just my brother and Fearless Leader! I love him but not like that, that would be weird!" She looked up to him with her head tilted slightly, "Right?"**

 **Jaune nodded, "It would be pretty weird." He turned back to their sister team. "So, we good?" They nodded. "Great. Let me and Nora shower so we can all meet up in the cafeteria for breakfast." He was about to close to the door but stopped. "And please don't kick our door in again. What if next time I'm naked?" This caused the girls to blush at that before he closed the door. Jaune put his swords away and showered before dressing in his usual clothes.**

"Kick the door in!" Yang shouted to her other self while Jaune was dressing. Jaune blushed alongside a few other people, but there was an unsurprising lack of denials. "Come on! Go get some Arc meat!"

"Yang! Watch your language!" exclaimed Weiss, still not refusing the idea.

"You're no fun, Weiss-Cream," huffed the blonde.

"Have you considered that maybe Jaune does not enjoy being teased like that?" inquired Pyrrha, more than a little peeved about that. "Not everyone is as relaxed with sexual teasing as you are…"

"Eh, it's fun."

 **The day went by normally. They relaxed mostly and just enjoyed their time off. Around midday, Jaune baked Ruby her cookies and she thanked him profusely. Both teams went to the library later to have some fun. Jaune and Ren paired up to play some shogi with Nora and Ruby watching and adding some unique color commentary. While Weiss and Pyrrha had a game of chess right next to them. Blake was reading close by watching both games and Yang was trying to amuse herself by trying to distract the four people concentrating on their respective games. They pretty much ignored her, until Yang hugged Jaune tightly from behind and pushed her breasts against his back. While whispering something into his ear. This caused him to blush like mad and jump up quickly to get away, but this also caused him to accidentally knock over the table. To say the pieces to the games went everywhere would be an understatement.**

Yang grinned and moved to stand behind Jaune, but then she realized there was one little detail their Jaune had and the Swordsman did not. "Aww… wings in the way."

"Did you say something, Yang?" asked Jaune, turning as much as the girl on his lap allowed him. That was not much. Not because he physically couldn't, but because she liked his chest as a pillow and kept him there. "Can you repeat?"

Yang blushed slightly at being caught and rapidly sat back beside him. "Err… nope. Not at all. Just wondering where this is going, that's all."

"Still, the library is not the right place to _have some fun_ ," remarked Winter. "It's a place for reading, not gaming."

"I agree with Specialist Schnee, keep that in mind," added Goodwitch.

 **Later that night, Jaune and Pyrrha went to the roof for one of their usual spars. Only this time Jaune was using his new bastard sword. He was trying to get used to the weight and trying to slowly master it. Pyrrha helped him out, giving him advice and helping him with his stance. By the end of their spar, Jaune had a good idea on how he would fight with Jinkiri. But he had a way to go. He also felt like Pyrrha was distracted during most of the day. The two of them were sitting on the edge of the roof and were drinking from their water bottles.**

"Fitting name," snarked Neptune, crossing his arms over his chest. "A bastard sword for a bastard."

Yang and Pyrrha alike rose from their seats on the ground, but Blake was faster. Her new chain for Gambol Shroud swiftly wrapped around Neptune's throat and tightened. Holding the struggling boy by the throat, she acted before anyone else had a chance to and 'ordered' a sword to fall from above them. Handing it to the bluenette, she grinned. "Here. You're right, it's a fitting name for you."

No one really chuckled, and the adults shot her several looks, but she shrugged them off. "What the hell?" asked Neptune, rubbing his throat. "You strangled me!"

"No, I held you for a few seconds with my chain around your neck. Had I wanted to strangle you, by now you'd be no more than a corpse on the ground," Blake pointed out, stating the obvious. "I just wanted to get my point across."

 **"Thanks, Pyrrha. I think I've got a better idea on my fighting style. Although, I do feel bad that we focused a bit more on me than you."**

 **Pyrrha quickly waved it off, "It's fine, Jaune. Next time you can make it up to me by fighting me without your Semblance. I wouldn't mind that rematch from Combat Class." She smiled lightly.**

 **He returned the smile, "You got it." They had a comfortable silence before Jaune decided to bring it up. "So, what's been bothering you?" She looked like she was going to deny it but Jaune just put his hand up. "You know I won't leave it be til you tell me. So, what's up?"**

 **She looked away for a second before she looked back, "I've just been thinking about Nora and Ren using your swords. Why didn't you tell me they could do that?"**

 **Jaune sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "To be honest, it slipped my mind." She looked at him shocked and he continued, "Since we lived outside the Kingdoms, I wanted to make sure that no one could wield my swords besides those I trust. So, they are designed to only respond to certain auras to make sure of that. The only respond to myself, Nora and Ren. But we haven't had to resort to it in a while, so I just didn't say anything."**

 **Pyrrha looked away and slowly nodded, "I see. People you trust. That makes sense." She said this in a sad voice but before Jaune could say anything, she had stood up. "I should really go shower and head to bed. Good night, Jaune." She looked at him with a smile and said it in a cheery voice, but Jaune knew Pyrrha had faked it. He had just hurt her. Next thing he knew, she was by the door and heading back into the dorms.**

Neptune snorted. "Really a way with women."

"My other self just overreacted," countered Pyrrha, a tick mark appearing on her head. "She should've known he didn't mean anything by that. And besides, he's known Ren and Nora for years, why should I expect to gain his trust in just a semester or something?"

"I want to be trusted too!" Ruby piped up.

"And I want to be _thrust into_ ," Yang whispered to Blake, making her go red. "Eh, too simple."

"Easy, easy," laughed Jaune, putting up his hands in peace. "I trust you guys. Besides, you don't need codes to use my weapons."

"About your weapons, we absolutely need to ask Phoenix for some blueprints," continued Ruby. "Like… the blueprints of your other selves' weapons! Maybe we'll find some interesting ideas, right? Oooh, and maybe we can built you a secondary weapon!"

"Saying 'no thanks' isn't gonna work, is it?" Jaune sighed good-naturedly. "Fine, Ruby, let's ask Phoenix next time he drops by. Shouldn't be too long, I think. We could try and add a railgun to my weapon."

Ruby beamed.

 **He face palmed before he sighed, "I'm an idiot. Of course the way I had to phrase it would be the thing to hurt her." He looked up at the fractured moon, "I have to make this up to her. And the only way is what I should've done a long time ago." He nodded to himself and waited on the roof. He wanted to give Pyrrha her space. After about half an hour or so, he went down and found his team asleep. He went to shower before heading to bed.**

 **He woke up the next morning at 5. He got out of bed and went over to Pyrrha to gently shake her awake. She soon woke up and looked at Jaune, she rubbed her eyes before saying tiredly, "Jaune? What's wrong?"**

 **He put his finger to his lip and quietly said, "Come with me, this is important." She looked at him confused before she nodded. She followed as he grabbed his swords and left the dorm. They made their way to the roof and the whole way Pyrrha was wondering what was going on. As they got there, Jaune sat down, cross-legged close to the edge. He pulled his swords in their sheathes onto his lap before he motioned for Pyrrha to do the same across from him. She followed his example and waited to see what would happen.**

 **He just looked at her for a bit before he took a deep breath. "First, I want to apologize, Pyrrha. I made it sound like I don't trust you but that can't be further from the truth. I trust you just as much as Ren and Nora. So to make it up to you, I'm gonna do something I should've done a long time ago." He took out his scroll and typed away at it, until a spot just above where the servo is located opened up, revealing a scanner. Pyrrha looked up at him and he explained, "Just put your hand on the scanner and when I tell you, send a bit of your aura into it." He gave her a small smile. She nodded and slowly placed her hand on the scanner before looking back to him.**

"Oooh, he's gonna add her to the list of people he trusts!" exclaimed Nora. Seeing the betrayed looks on RWBY's faces, she broke out laughing. "Sillies, of course he trusts you too! You're all his girlfriends!"

Ignoring the girls' blushes, Ren shook her out of her laughter. "Nora, it's not nice to make fun of others. You always get embarrassed when someone suggests we're a couple," he noted, stopping her dead in her tracks and making her blush crimson. "If you don't want others to think we are together, then do not tease others about being with someone else."

Nora bit her lip. "Still considering them his girlfriends," she whispered.

 **He took a deep breath, "I, Jaune Arc, give you this choice. To be one of few that can wield these blades. To use them in my stead and to stand beside me. These swords are my creations and in some way, my very life. Do you accept this honor and this curse?" He just looked at her with a serious look and waited for her answer.**

 **Without hesitation she replied. "I, Pyrrha Nikos, accept both this honor and this curse. I pledge to use these blades in your stead and to stand beside you. I will use these swords to defend you and your life. I pledge my very life on this."**

 **Jaune smiled lightly and nodded. She did the same before she sent her aura into the scanner. After a few seconds the sheathes and blades started to glow red, like her aura, until it disappeared. She took her hand away and the panel closed. Jaune shifted the sheathes so the handles would point towards Pyrrha. "Draw a sword and honor this oath." She held her hand above the handles and one deployed. She looked to Jaune and he nodded, she gripped it and drew Dokiri as she did, the sun broke over the horizon. It illuminated both of them in a golden light. Jaune looked over at it and smiled, "Perfect timing."**

"I can't believe it," exclaimed Sun. "Extra special effects by Mother Nature Company! That's cheating!"

"Idiot," snorted Blake, punching him on the shoulder. "He probably timed it just right, so to add the sun to the effect. And Yang please, no jokes about Sun and the sun."

"Aww…"

 **Pyrrha just looked at Jaune, as his eyes and hair seemed to shine with the light of the new day. She blushed at how handsome he looked right now. She returned Dokiri to its sheathe before she sat next to him. He attached them to his back and sat there watching the sunrise with Pyrrha, "So did I make up for being an idiot?"**

 **She giggled slightly, "I would say so." She leaned her head on his shoulder, "Thank you for trusting me, Jaune."**

 **"It wasn't hard, Pyrrha. I've always trusted you but I decided to show you, rather than just tell you." He smiled.**

 **"By the way, was that oath actually part of the process?" She asked slightly tired.**

 **Jaune chuckled slightly, "Nope. I just have a flare for the dramatics." He expected Pyrrha to either laugh or hit him gently. He looked to see that she fell asleep. He just smiled and slowly brought her into his arms to carry her bridal style. "Let's get you back to bed." Was all he said as he carried her back to their room. He tucked her into her bed and she had the most peaceful and happy expression he's seen to date.**

Most people cooed at the scene, as it wasn't everyday the Champion of Mistral looked like that. She seemed a little redhead angel, she only needed the wings and then it would be a perfectly angelic scene. Of course Qrow then had to go and disrupt the moment by dragging a terrified Jaune to the training rooms and forbidding his nieces to check on him.

A few tense seconds later, when Blake told the others she couldn't hear any scream, people relaxed. It was then, that Phoenix decided to throw them a curve ball. Or, well, a Noraism. A note popped up on Nora's lap with the usual flame trick, and the redhead obviously read it silently. Obviously Phoenix had something to tell her that she shouldn't tell the others. Obviously! Right?

The note was _"Nora, I want you to be my Agent of Chaos. I would like for you to throw the three I dislike the most into the lava. For each one thrown I will give you a reward. What do you say?"_

Nora was giddy. Anyone else would've stopped and considered it, but she was Nora. Who needed consideration? Not her! "I'll do it! Can you remove the spell?"

Everyone looked at her weirdly before a laughter rang out, Phoenix's. _"Sorry, no can do. That would get both me and Khor into serious trouble. Possibly our ability to Wander."_

 _"Although it_ _ **would**_ _be entertaining…"_ another voice added in a whisper.

"Aww… okay, no spellbreaking. I'm guessing Cardin, Neptune and the General, right?" She grinned widely and jumped up. "Oooh, do I need to throw them right away? Or should I wait? Or… you know what, I'm not gonna wait, here I go!"

Ironwood was taken off-guard as the hyperactive girl basically materialized herself beside him. "What? Wait-aaaaaaaaaaaahh!"

Neptune was next with a "Not agaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnn!".

Grinning, Nora turned to the last, who tried to flee. However, Blake nonchalantly tripped him, and Cardin paled when he felt Nora grab his ankles. "Nonononononono I'm sorry for being a jerk I'm sorry I'm sorry I-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Nora clapped her hands in satisfaction. "Done!"

 _"Wow… That was quick! But I'm a man of my word."_

A small table appeared where she was previously sitting. On it sat a cup of decaffeinated coffee, and a stack of apple cinnamon pancakes coated with powdered sugar. Nora grinned before she got an idea, and put a hand to her chin. "Wait a second… you said for each one… so if I throw them again you'll give me more rewards and pancakes!"

Somehow reaching Ruby's speed, she quickly built a slide from the place the jerks were going to reappear from to the chasm. Idiotwood, Carbin and Ineptune reappeared, and slid back down the chasm with another trio of screams. "So~?"

 _"Nope, one each, once. If you want more pancakes, just ask for them. I added my recipe to Khor's list so he can provide them easily. And here is your last gift!"_ They could _hear_ the evil smirk in his voice as a song began to play loudly. One paying special attention was a boy by the name of Lie Ren. _"Enjoy~"_

 _ **(AN: play Boop, RWBY soundtrack, thank you. I'd rather not add the whole thing.)**_

Nora was slowly inching her way to the chasm to try and throw herself off the edge when Ren spoke up. "Nora, come here." As always, she quietly obeyed, standing face-to-chest with Ren himself. "Was this what you always meant by 'together-together' and 'not together-together'?"

She nodded shyly.

Ren sighed. "Nora, we _are_ friends. Nothing is going to change that. You don't need to be scared of me abandoning you. I'll always be by your side," he gently told her, but she wasn't having any of that. If Jaune - _Jaune!_ \- had gotten over his denseness, Ren wasn't gonna be spared.

"Oh, for the love of Oum!" She grabbed his shoulders and smothered him with a kiss. Pulling back as she realized there was no reaction, she saw he had fainted right then and there, and his eyes had rolled back into his skull.

Well… apparently he had been very surprised…

 ** _Whooops, poor Ren._**

 ** _What can I say on this? Nothing I can say._**

 ** _There's a new poll on my profile, for the story after Trail of Blood (that is ending in 3-4-5 chapters more or less). Please go and vote. Sorry for the curtness, I have a headache at the moment._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	27. Chapter 26

**_And here it is with ViewingTES! Hehe, today was shitty but I'm still smiling... a bit forced but hey, beggars can't be choosers. So... What can I say? I'm writing this just because I like to have ANs at the start and at the end of the chapter, so it's really just me writing some useless words while I could leave it ANless. Bah, I don't care. Enjoy this chapter._**

For all they shook him, Lie Ren remained unconscious, in a comatose state that made Nora feel incredibly guilty. Not even the fountain could help him, when they had tried to spray some water on him, he had opened one eye, said "Lie Ren is currently unreachable. Please try again in a few eons." in a robotic voice, and promptly passed out again.

Eventually, they had just left him there and moved on, sooner or later he would wake up. Nora had to be reassured that yes, of course he loved her too, by everyone else, but otherwise only one thing was noteworthy. Or rather, one dog. The all-around awesome Helios, adorable puppy and part-time dragon.

Who was currently staring at Ozpin with an adorably pleading expression in his big puppy eyes. Then his eyes moved down, laying on his cane, and then went back to him. The man, heartless as Khor, endured the cuteness onslaught and firmly shook his head. "No. My cane is a weapon, not some toy to play fetch with."

Helios whined, and Ozpin's cane glowed purple before it flew out of his hands and on Goodwitch's open palm. She grinned at the dog and threw the cane into the chasm, knowing the dog would be fine. Helios ran immediately ran after it. When she turned to look at Ozpin, she felt a pang of guilt.

The man had the most betrayed expression ever worn by man. The man could handle much. He could handle being cursed by the Gods for something he had no power over. He could handle said Gods murdering all humanity out of pettiness. He could handle his ex being a murderous Grimm entity who wanted to destroy humanity _again_. However, he could not handle that. Not Glynda too.

"My cane… why…" he murmured as he stared into the void.

Two sets of laughters rang out in the clearing, telling everyone just who had planned for that to happen. Their outrage and shock was so funny the laughters doubled in volume.

A second later Helios popped back on the rocky balcony with a burst of flames, and it was of course that the moment Qrow chose to come back, dragging a semi-conscious Jaune behind him. After leaving the boy in the caring hands of his _girlfriends_. Ugh, he still had trouble thinking that. Tai would be so damn proud of the boy… after he punched his everything in, of course. Besides, the boy was a Faunus Taiyang look-alike, so that was to be expected. What he had _not_ expected, though, was for his very own nieces to fall for him first.

Had he kept his claws limited to Nikos, Schnee and Belladonna, Qrow would've congratulated him.

But he just _had_ to take Ruby's and Yang's innocence, hadn't he? And the man couldn't even do anything about it without _someone_ butting in.

"Everyone ready?" asked Ironwood as everyone finally settled down. Between Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, Blake and Weiss, Jaune was awakened pretty soon. And immediately, his 'red ornament' reclaimed her lap-throne. "Then let's start."

"Nora is still unhappy about Ren's unresponsiveness," noted Pyrrha. "But otherwise we're ready."Jaune was walking throughout the grounds of Beacon, yawning loudly.

 **He was extremely tired considering the day he had yesterday. He shuddered slightly at the memory.**

 **After tucking in Pyrrha after giving her access to his swords, he decided to head down to the training rooms to practice further with Jinkiri. As much as he appreciated Pyrrha's help, the two tended to hold back against each other. Both afraid to hurt their partner. Also, sometimes Pyrrha didn't agree with his riskier ideas but they always produced the best results. So, he went down to the training room and set up a few training drones to practice on. He set them to an intermediate level and prepared to start. He usually fought twice this number at a higher level but he knew he wouldn't stand a chance at that level with his new weapon. At least not yet. After about an hour and a half of fighting against the robots he decided he got more used to his new blade. Still a far cry from his usual fighting levels but he could at least hold his own now.**

"Damn fast-learning Arc…" grumbled Neptune. "Is there something he is not good at?"

"Mr Vasilias, there are so many fields of expertise in the world, you don't have enough information about the Swordsman to make such a statement," replied Ironwood, crossing his arms. "For all we know, he might be utterly horrible in many other activities."

"Well, at least we know our own Arc is the polar opposite, never good at anything," snarked Neptune, crossing his arms, before being slapped by Cardin. "Ouch, man, what the hell?"

"Stop being petty. All you are doing is to make yourself look childishly petty and utterly stupid, or envious. Arc is not perfect, he's not awful, like everyone else he's somewhere in between," scolded the taller boy. "Insulting him nonstop will just paint him in a positive light by comparison with you. If you really hate him so much, ignore him and don't comment on him."

"Strangely wise words, Winchester," Weiss noted with a raised eyebrow.

Cardin shrugged. "I've been pummelled, thrown boots at, hit by pressurized air, thrown into a volcano, beat into the dirt, and eaten by a giant freaking dragon. I kind of realized why, and I think I've learned that lesson." No one could argue with that. "Besides, I'm done with Arc. I don't like him, so I just don't waste my time and breath in insulting him like a moron."

"I never thought I'd hear those words coming out of your mouth," commented Blake, surprised. "I guess you did learn something."

 **After that, he placed his swords to the side and started working on his hand to hand on a few more drones. He fought Yang more times than he could count but fighting multiple opponents at once was a good change. He did this for an hour and took a fifteen-minute break. When he was back to normal, he started to work on strength training. Although his Semblance could increase his abilities, if he wanted to improve at all he'd need to increase his base stats. For the next hour and a half, he did a hundred pull-ups, with each arm, two-hundred crunches upside down, two-hundred squats, a hundred-fifty bench presses lifting twice his weight. He just finished his reps and was about to take a breather when Nora and Yang came in. His day just got a lot more exhausting after that.**

A few giggles rang out when Jaune groaned. "Why?"

 **Nora made him do his usual a hundred pushups with her on his back, but with a twist. Yang would also be on his back. Usually, Jaune could reach the upper seventies before he started tiring. But with both Yang and Nora, he was struggling with the mid-forties. After that was done, those two came up with at least another half a dozen crazy exercises for Jaune to do. And Jaune knew it wasn't to help him. They were both mad at him, Nora for him tickling her to near exhaustion the day before and Yang for the new nickname for Ruby. Whether that was just her being protective or jealous, he didn't know and didn't ask.**

Being reminded of her currently nickname-less state, Yang immediately punched Jaune's shoulder. "You! You still owe me a nickname!" she exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at him. "Don't forget it, Lover Knight."

"Yang, stop changing nickname!" protested Nora. "I am confused, how should I call him now?!"

"Fearless Leader, of course, only I can call him Lover-something. Me and Ruby, his _girlfriends_." Yang grinned at Pyrrha's slightly peeved expression. "But still, I want that nickname."

"I'm thinking about it, I swear!" Jaune defended himself.

 **After all of that the two wouldn't let Jaune call it a day until he beat them both in a fight. Nora had him fight her with Jinkiri and both promised to not use their grenades and dust. After losing to her twice, he decided to use a loophole. When Nora went to swing at him, he rolled out of the way so he was close enough to his other swords. He grabbed Raikiri's handle just long enough to activate his Semblance before shooting at Nora in a burst of lightning. He stopped with Jinkiri's blade at her throat. He won but Nora called him a cheater. Which he responded that he didn't fight with Raikiri and just used his Semblance, which was fair game. She pouted but conceded the point.**

 **Yang, shortly after, had him fight close combat with her with neither using a weapon. This didn't go well for Jaune. Yang kept grappling him for the obvious reason to have her body teasingly pushed up against his. With this distraction, Jaune lost seven times. The eighth match ended when Yang had him in an arm bar, her legs across his chest and his right arm between her breast. Jaune finally had enough and dislocated his right shoulder. Yang quickly let go of him in a panic but as she did, Jaune tackled her to the ground. He brought down an aura charged fist with his left arm down before stopping just before her face. He won and to Yang's ire, just popped his right arm back into its socket. He explained that he had dislocated that arm on a few occasions during his training, so he was used to it. After that, he hit the showers and was shocked to find out that it was already seven. He sighed before he went back to his dorm to relax and promptly passed out.**

Most of the Watchers were by then laughing at the Swordsman's misfortune. Yang's vengeful personality was expected, but no one really thought Nora of all people could hold a grudge. Yang took a page from her own book, or her alternative version's book, and pressed Jaune's arm to her chest, making him blush and sputter. Really, those girls were gonna be the death of his.

To even the playing field, he swiftly reached around and gave her butt a firm squeeze. Yang squeaked, _squeaked_ , and jumped back so fast she almost fell in the chasm. With both of them crimson-faced, the group returned to watch the viewing.

Remember, girls, you're not the only ones who can tease, and you too have hormones that can be used against you.

 **Today, he wasn't in terrible shape. His aura took care of any sore muscles from the day before but he was just tired. Which is why he was walking around Beacon. He couldn't sleep in with Nora around and he didn't want to be around in case those two wanted to put him through the ringer again. He did message Ren and Ruby to ask them to keep those two busy for the day as a favor. They agreed but he'd rather be safe than sorry.**

 **"Jaune!" He was brought out of his thoughts by someone shouting. He turned to see Blake running towards him, looking excited. This was weird but he still smiled and waited for her to get to him.**

"Hey, I'm not Ren, I have 'excited' among my looks!" protested Blake, earning a deadpan from the boy. "See? He is the-wait a second, he's awake!"

Immediately, Ren knocked himself out with a punch, leaving a note of _"I'm still thinking, I just didn't want to miss the viewing. We'll talk later."_

"Aww…" groaned Nora.

"Don't worry Nora, I'm sure you'll get him," Pyrrha encouraged her, patting her back comfortingly. "Of course he will return your feelings, you both are… well, dense… but everyone else has noticed already. Just follow my lead and everything'll be okay."

"Sorry, Pyrrha, how are you and Jaune?" Nora asked sarcastically, making her blush crimson. "Sorry, but I'm not taking advice from you of all people. If you're afraid of messing up with Jaune, someone you've known for just a few months, how can you tell me what to do with Ren, who I've known for most of my life?"

Pyrrha slumped slightly before Nora patted her shoulder. "There, there. Momma Nora will get you with Jaune soon, don't worry. As birthday gift… wait, when is your birthday? We should totally celebrate it. Wait, Ren and I haven't told you ours so of course you haven't told us yours. Oh, and Jaune? When is his birthday? Pyrrha are you okay?"

Pyrrha raised a hand to stop her rant and cradled her confused head. "It's nothing, Nora. Just a little puzzled."

"Oh! I love puzzles!"

 **She stopped in front of him and he greeted her, "Morning, Blake. You seem excited about something." He smiled at her.**

 **She nodded, "Very. Look what I got the day I went to Vale with Yang." She pulled out the sequel to Ninjas of Love and Jaune just smiled wider. Now it made sense. "I was going to show you when I got it but you were busy with your weapons. Than yesterday, you were just gone."**

"Damn it, she's just showing him her porn," sighed Yang. "The screen's better not showing the contents, for Ruby's sake, or I'm gonna break it."

"I highly doubt you can do that," retorted Winter, snorting even just at the mere idea of anyone of them being able to shatter that screen. "But yes, I do share your worry. I'd rather not read some obscene and indecent story, no matter how 'interesting' Ms Belladonna might claim it to be."

"Hey!"

"Face it, Blake," even Ruby added in. "It's porn."

"Ruby, don't even use that word!"

 **He sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "Sorry about that. Nora and Yang had me working out all day. That's why I'm trying to avoid them now." He grinned and she giggled slightly. "Thank you for telling me, Blake. Let me borrow it when you're done?"**

 **"Actually, Jaune, I had another idea." She wasn't making eye contact with him and she was blushing slightly. "Do you want to read it together?"**

 **Jaune was taken back slightly, "That would be nice, Blake." He smiled brightly and so did she. He made a gentleman's bow, "After you, my lady." She giggled more before she gently took his hand and escorted him to the library. When they got there, they found a small love seat near the back of the library. They sat down, Blake on the Jaune's left side. Jaune put his arm on the back of the couch and Blake leaned into him slightly, she angled her body so both could read the book. They both read at the same pace so they both just enjoyed the book with someone who also enjoyed the series. After a half an hour, Jaune noticed that Blake was shaking slightly due to the AC. Jaune unzipped his hoodie and put it around her, she jumped slightly before looking at Jaune.**

"Cliché," scoffed Neptune.

"Clichés are clichés because they work," Blake pointed out. "Not because they are unoriginal."

"Aside from that, how can they manage to do that?" asked Jaune, freaked out. Even just the sight of it made his skin crawl. "I _hate_ when someone is reading over my shoulder, or even just reading what _I_ am reading."

"Yeah, I hate that too," nodded Blake. "It makes my ear start twitching like hell and I can't focus on the story. Anyone else?"

Basically everyone raised their hands. "Huh, it's more common than I thought."

 **"You looked cold." He said.**

 **"You sure? What about you?" She asked.**

 **He just grinned and pulled a fire dust crystal from his pocket. "If I need to, I can use my Semblance."**

"That's cheating, he could share the hoodie with Blakey," offered Nora, much to both of them's embarrassment. "Oh, come on, don't try to deny it, it'd be so very cute!"

 **She just looked at him, "Do you always have one of those on you?"**

 **"Mother always had me carry one when I was away from my weapons." She nodded before she put her arms through the sleeves. The hoodie was too big for her but she didn't care. It was warm and smelled like Jaune. She leaned back against him and they kept reading. When they got to one of the steamy parts, Blake leaned into Jaune a bit more and Jaune unconsciously moved his arm around Blake's shoulders. Neither really noticed or minded.**

 **They were there for a couple of hours when Jaune noticed it was taking Blake a bit longer than normal to turn the page. He looked down and noticed that she fell asleep. He just smiled and brought out his scroll to see if he had any messages. As he was doing that, Blake started mumbling in her sleep and was shaking slightly. Jaune looked and saw she had a troubled look on her face. He realized she was having a nightmare. He moved her so that her head was on his chest, so she could listen to his heart and started to slowly stroke her hair. This was what he did for Nora when she had nightmares and what Gin did for all of them when they were young. He noticed that the closer he was to her ears, the more she calmed down. So, it eventually devolved into him practically petting her. Soon she stopped mumbling and her troubled expression turned to one of peace. She was also making that purring sound.**

Everyone basically froze at the scene. Sun wanted to cry out how it was another terribly common cliché, the girl having a nightmare and being comforted in her sleep by the guy, but seeing Blake - _Blake_ \- do something like that… well, it probably broke him. Poor Sun.

Helios just barked, although softly, happy with the scene onscreen.

Yang was kind of jealous, but of course she didn't show it. Heck, she had her Jaune for herself, she could do that all the time. So why wasn't she? Shyness, what's that? She hurried to rectify the problem.

Ruby, on the other hand, had thought about it already. _'Meh, I'm already closer to him. Amateur.'_

 **She slowly woke up and looked at him with a half lidded expression that made Jaune's heart melt. "Morning, Kitten." Was all he said.**

 **She smiled before her eyes snapped open and she realized his hand was on her head. Then she realized the position they were in. Someone else would've jumped up immediately but Blake calmed herself down. "Jaune, why are we like this?"**

 **"You fell asleep and you looked like you were having a nightmare, so I moved us like this to try to soothe you." He said.**

 **She nodded before she continued, "Why is your hand on the top of my head?"**

 **"Well, I was stroking your hair to calm you and I noticed the closer I was to your ears, the better it was working. Sorry, I know a Faunus' animal characteristics are very personal." He slowly took his hand away.**

 **Blake missed it immediately but she kept calm, "Jaune, be honest. Why are you so obsessed with my ears?" She asked with curiosity, nothing more.**

"Obsessed?" repeated Jaune, peeved. "And what about Ruby, Yang and Pyrrha, who basically knocked me out with-nnnngghhsto-their rubbing between my wings? I-nnnggghhhYangstop-don't see how the Swordsman can be obsessed…"

"Let's just hear out his answer and then we'll judge, okay?" offered Ruby, swatting Yang's hand aside when she tried to continue rubbing Jaune's back. "Yang, stop, or I'll give Jaune the permission to grope back."

Both blondes didn't blush as much as changed skin colour from pale pink to bright red, while Qrow groaned _again_.

 **Jaune thought for a second before he answered, "I think because now I know the real you." She was just looking at him, so he continued. "With all the other Faunus I know: Velvet, Sun, even Mother. Their characteristics were just a part of them, it didn't change how I viewed them. But with you, it's different. Seeing you with your ears out is seeing the real you, Blake. And it's because of seeing them and you trusting me with your secret that I get to know the real you. The you I wish didn't have to hide." He looked away slightly and sighed before looking back to her. "I guess, I prefer being with the real you more than the you, you have to live as to be safe from racism."**

 **Blake just looked at him, her eyes were watering slightly and her heart was beating fast. She laid her face on his chest before she spoke, "Why do you have to be so great, Jaune? It makes it so hard to hold back." She sniffled before continuing, "I honestly love you, Jaune, but we can't be together. You would be put through so much pain and hate. You deserve better than that. I want to stop loving you, for your sake but you keep making me fall for you more and more. Please, for your sake, just stop."**

 **She felt his hand gently cup her cheek. He slowly moved her face so she was looking at him, "You have a good heart, Blake. After everything that you've been through, you deserve to be happy. More than most. I don't know if I love you, Blake." He said this and her heart dropped slightly. "But, it's a very strong possibility." Her eyes widened and he gently wiped away her tears. "And if I do, nothing will stop me from being with you. I'm no stranger to pain and who cares if people hate me for reasons that they're too stupid to understand." He smiled genuinely at her.**

 **She stared at him and slowly started to raise her head closer to his. Their lips were an inch apart before she stopped. She looked into his eyes and she just saw all the light in them, 'I can't do this to him.' Was all she thought as she slowly started to back away. But Jaune still had his hand on her cheek and as she felt his warmth she couldn't stop herself. She closed the distance. She felt his lips and her world exploded. She tried to hold back but she couldn't anymore. She kissed him fully as she gripped his shirt tightly. They separated and she just looked at him with a loving look, "Jaune, if you do figure out you love me, you better keep that promise."**

 _Thud_. Sun was down by the count. Cause: too much fluff.

Blake and Jaune alike were blushing brightly, at least until Yang decided she was feeling _too_ jealous and grabbed Jaune's head, heatedly locking with him. Ruby was just waiting for her turn.

Pyrrha and Weiss alike were tightly clutching their pillows, and even Nora was not crazy enough to understand the pissed look in their eyes. Damn girls, get a grip and do what Nora did with Ren!

Knock him out?

Well… Okay, maybe it was better for them not to copy Nora's actions, to be honest.

 **Jaune nodded slowly, recovering from the kiss. "Arc's promise."**

 **She smiled before she reached up to her bow. She looked around and saw no one around before she removed it. As her ears were freed, he just looked at them, "From now on, if we are ever alone together, I will only be the real me for you."**

 **Jaune looked at her and smiled, "Thank you for the added trust, Kitten." After that, the two went back to reading their book. Both were enjoying their time together. It was around midday when Jaune asked to stop for a few minutes. Blake agreed and Jaune left to go get something for them. Blake just sat there waiting for him with a smile, she was in heaven with the day she was having. That was until she heard someone coming towards her. She had no time to put her bow back on, so she pulled the hood up on Jaune's hoodie. Just as she did, Russel and Sky from Team CRDL came around the corner. The two were talking about something before they stopped when they saw Blake. They looked at each other before they smirked and made their way over to her. Blake tried to ignore this and was pretending to read her book. Soon they were in front of her.**

"They just had to ruin it!" protested, surprisingly, Ozpin himself. Watching the life of his students was his hobby and not his duty, sure, but damn if he wasn't annoyed whether some jackasses interrupted a nice moment. Heck, there was a reason why PDA were allowed in Beacon, much to Glynda's eternal despair. He loved seeing his students be caught and embarrassedly try to flee.

"Professor?" asked Cardin, bewildered.

"No excuses, those two will get a month detention as soon as we get back!" stated the once unflappable man. "I hate when these kind of things happens!"

 **"Hey, aren't you Blake Belladonna?" Russel asked.**

 **She sighed and without looking up answered, "Yes."**

 **"Well, we noticed you were by yourself. So, we wanted to know if you wanted our company?" Sky said next with what he thought was a charming smile but it was just creepy.**

 **Still without looking up she answered, "Why would you two want to spend time with me?" She knew the answer already.**

 **"Why wouldn't we want to spend time with a pretty thing like you?" Russel answered her.**

 **She sighed again. "No, thank you."**

 **"Don't be like that. We can give you a very nice time." Sky added.**

 **"I said, No." She added as much finality she could behind it but they weren't getting it.**

 **"Come on, give us a shot." Russel said.**

 **"Yeah. We can be very convincing." Sky added.**

 **The two were getting too close for comfort but Blake was too afraid to move, in case the hood slipped. "What the hell is going on!?" someone shouted. They all looked to see Jaune marching his way over to them and he was less than happy.**

"Come on, cheesy clichés are getting boring!" complained Sun, regaining a little bit of consciousness after seeing his crush kissing someone else. Something told him he should've looked for someone else instead of Blake, duh. "The girl is getting harassed, and he swoops in to save the day. Is this all you can d-" _Thunk_.

A boot hit him square on the forehead, with a message tucked inside. _"Quit whining and complaining. If you hate it so much, next time_ _ **you**_ _write it! P."_

"What the hell, man?"

"Well, he's not wrong," noted Weiss. "As cliché as it may be, it is quite possible that Blake would avoid beating them up to prevent her secret to be revealed."

"Huh?" Jaune separated from Yang with a wet _pop_ and looked at the white-haired girl. "Blake wh-Mmph!" Ruby's lips were on his the next second, effectively shutting him up again. A pillow was torn to shreds by Pyrrha, and she grabbed another one.

 **"What's it to you?" Russel tried to act tough but Jaune pushed past him and stood between them and Blake.**

 **"Considering she's important to me and wants nothing to do with you, a lot." He had a noticeable edge to his voice. "I suggest you two leave before I decide to stop being nice." His aura flared slightly.**

 **The two looked at each other before they looked back at Jaune. Apparently, they were thinking they could take Jaune without his weapons and it being two on one. They would find out how wrong they were. "What's going on?" They all heard the voice and saw Cardin coming over. 'Great, just what I need.' Jaune thought bitterly.**

 **Cardin stood there and just looked at the scene before he sighed and looked at his teammates. "Really? Again?" The two looked away from him and he just shook his head. "Just get out of here before Arc kicks your asses." The two mumbled their apologies before they made their way out of the library. Cardin turned to Blake and Jaune, "Sorry about them. They're good guys, they just don't think with the right head."**

"What?" was most people's reaction. Only Cardin and Ozpin were exempt. Oh, and Helios of course. And Jaune since Ruby was still keeping him busy.

"He probably processed the fact that what he was doing was stupid and… well, stupid," commented Cardin. "More or less like what I did, just with less boots, less beatings, and less dragons."

"Well said, Mr Winchester," agreed the Headmaster.

 **Jaune recovered, "No harm, no foul I guess. Kinda thought you'd be on their side on this though."**

 **Cardin just scratched the back of his head nervously, "Well, things change." He sighed. "Look, Arc, I did a lot of crappy things last semester that I'm not proud of. I'm not going to make excuses but you gave me a wakeup call. I'm trying to make myself better and my team as well. So, I want to apologize to you for everything. I know we probably won't be friends but I want to do this right though." He held his hand out to Jaune.**

 **He was stunned for a second before he decided to bite the bullet. He shook Cardin's hand. He started to walk away after that before Jaune stopped him. "Hey, Cardin." He looked back at him with his eyebrow raised. "If you ever wanna spar, like a friendly one, look me up." Cardin looked at him for a few seconds before nodding. He left the library and Jaune turned to Blake, who was shocked. "Did that really happen?" he asked.**

 **She nodded, "I think it did." She said before removing the hood off her head. "Where'd you go by the way?" she asked him.**

 **He smiled before he sat next to her and pulled out two tuna fish sandwiches. "Thought you might be hungry."**

 **Blake took the sandwich and bit into it with a hum of happiness, "You really are perfect." She said with a smile. Jaune laughed at that and the two ate in peace. When they were done they went back to their book and enjoyed the rest of their day.**

"Incredible, we got to see Cardin being actually nice, for a change." Ren's sarcastic remark resulted in Nora basically teleporting by his side and grabbing his wrists to prevent him from knocking himself out _again_. "Err… Nora?"

"The answer." She brought her face inches from his own. "Now."

Ren looked at her, then pecked her on the lips, feather-lightly. She froze with a squeak. Amused, Ren touched her nose. "Boop." And she fell backwards, straight into the water, out cold. "Well, I guess now it's her turn. Pyrrha, if you faint too all of JNPR will have fainted."

"Not fair, we can faint too!" exclaimed Yang. "We can faint ten times better than yo-!"

"Nice butt, Yang," smirked Jaune, slapping her booty with a chuckle. Yang squeaked like Nora and collapsed to the ground with a _thud_. Meanwhile, the only thing holding Qrow back from murdering him was the flaming hammer with Phoenix's symbol on it, that had reappeared above his head, keeping him down. "Meh, too easy, now I know why she likes teasing so much. It's fu-"

"I'm awake!" shouted Yang, jumping up again and startling Jaune into screaming like a little girl -no, seriously, his scream was two octaves higher than Weiss's voice-, pumping her fist up in victory. "My ass totally didn't just get slapped by my boyfriend, so stop it with the looks!"

Goodwitch could only sigh at that, and then she busied herself with petting Helios.

"Jaune, it's not nice to slap someone's butt like that!" Ruby scolded him, although her cheeks were crimson-stained, and she had a tinge or two of jealousy hidden in her voice. "Especially not in public!"

"Sorry, I was just pranking her," he defended himself, but fortunately he was saved when Nora woke up from her own little coma. Jaune fell silent as the girl stalked toward Ren, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and smashed her lips against his once again. The kiss seemed violent, passionate and carefree. All those three adjectives also described Nora. Ren never stood a chance. "Well… I guess they are finally together-together, right?"

Nora parted from Ren and grinned at him. "Yep! And I'll break the legs of anyone saying or _thinking_ otherwise!"

A loud laughter rang out, Phoenix's, and a large burning red flame appeared off the edge of the chasm…

…and then Phoenix fell from the air in a burst of orange flames, landing with a _thud_.

"Ouch… a few meters wrong, I guess. My bad." The man dusted himself off and turned to the Watchers with a large smile. "So~ Good to see you again." His gaze fell first on Jaune with Ruby and Yang, and then on Nora and Ren. "Looks like you all have made some progress since last time I was here. Nice to see."

While the five of them blushed, he laughed and turned to Cardin. "And you. I must say, I thought you would've taken longer to redeem. It seems that even a Writer can be wrong, hehe. However, as much as you've understood how the world works, I know perfectly well that you're not enjoying yourself here. As such, I will send you back. Don't worry, the dorms have been repaired." He sighed. "I'm sorry, my friend Khor can… go quite overboard. He meant not harm when he launched a few massive fireballs that vaporized you all and then re-assembled your bodies in this dimensions. Seriously, he's just a little odd."

"Okay…"

"Anyway, ignoring Winter's very intelligent comment, I will also bring in a new bitch… I mean, a new guest, Cinder Fall. And yes, as you can guess I don't like her." Phoenix waved a hand, and Cardin disappeared in a flash of flames. A second hand wave later, another person was standing in his place, with a little black and white corgi that immediately ran up to Ruby. "Oh, and there's Zwei too."

"Zwei!"

She was a tall woman with ashen black hair and burning orange eyes, wearing a form-fitting red dress that left little to nothing to imagination. She also appeared to be seething. "What's the meaning of this!?"

"Chill, bitch, chill, you're way too heated right now," Phoenix joked while popping his back.

"Ehm… Phoenix, why do you hate her so much?" asked Ruby, confused. She kind of remembered seeing that girl around in Beacon. She was a student from Haven, if she recalled correctly. Why was she there?

"Because the bitch is at the top of the short list of people I absolutely hate in Remnant," Phoenix replied nonchalantly. Helios moved to stand beside him and barked in agreement, and Zwei followed suit. Then all three of them nodded in unison.

"You bastard!" Cinder's right eye began to burn and she conjured a flame in her hand. "Die!"

Phoenix blocked the attack with a hand, and reformed the fire into another, larger, fireball. Then he looked at Cinder and simply raised an eyebrow that screamed 'Seriously?'

"Ms Fall, Phoenix is a semi-omnipotent entity akin to a god, I suggest you do not try to anger him," advised Ozpin. "It would not be wise."

"I-" Cinder finally realized that she was not alone in the rocky balcony, and fell silent for a second. "Where… am… I?"

"Oh! So glad you asked!" exclaimed Nora. "Let me tell you. There we were, in the middle of the night…"

"I'll handle the explanation, please." Phoenix laughed as Nora pouted. "But, you can still tell your own version afterwards."

 ** _Burn, Cinder, burn. You've fallen straight into the dragon's lair. Never awaken the sleeping dragon._**

 ** _Anyway! This was... weird. That's really the only way I can describe it. It was kinda weird. Funny in a weird way. Weirdly odd. Whatever. Oh, and I have an Omake about Cinder, eheh, but first I want to add a few more lines of AN._**

 ** _Why, you may ask? Well, because otherwise it'll blend in too much with the chapter. It's called aesthetics, and I know jack shit about it. So, now that I've added this two lines... Omake time._**

 ** _HOW PEOPLE SHOULD'VE REACTED TO CINDER'S PLAN_**

 ** _Salem_**

"...and then I will take the full Maiden powers, and I shall return here. What do you think of my plan, mistress?" Cinder looked so hopeful... Salem almost praised her just out of pity.

Almost. "Cinder, this is just plain stupid. You are using Emerald, Mercury, Torchwick, Neopolitan and Taurus as main pawns for your little game of chess. However, out of all of them, only Emerald has any real loyalty to you, and even then that could be easily broken." The Queen of the Grimm sighed. "Plus using the White Fang like that is just gonna have all the four Kingdoms come down on them like Nevermores on a prey, they would never agree to metaphorically signing their own demise. As for Torchwick, he gains nothing from this, and he's a masterthief, you would never manage to get a hold of him. Just think of something else, Cinder."

"Mistress, please, this plan is going to work!"

 ** _Emerald_**

"Cinder, goodbye." Emerald stepped away. "I go back to the streets. Your plan is plain stupid."

 _'Come on, it's just one,'_ thought Cinder.

 ** _Mercury_**

"The hell? Fuck you, Cinder, you can take back these prosthetics, I'm not dumb enough to follow a plan like that." Mercury removed his legs and crawled away. "I go back to my father's house. Your plan is suicidal."

 _'Come on!'_ thought Cinder.

 ** _Taurus_**

"You bitch! It's... It's... I can't believe you actually planned something like that! You think I am going to agree to something like that!?" Taurus gripped his hair and pulled at it in exasperation. "I want revenge on the humans, but this is plain madness! The army is going to hunt us down after we destroy the school!"

Cinder felt her world break a little.

 ** _Torchwick_**

"Nice joke, Cindy, now, what's the real plan?" Torchwick waited for a few seconds, smoking his cigar, before realizing she did _not_ have another plan. He sighed and walked away. "Jeez, kids these days. They are a waste of time with their fantasy plans to conquer the world."

Cinder clutched her plans tightly. _'No... no... my beautiful plans_ _ **work**_ _. They are just stupid...'_

 _ **Neo**_

"..." Neo flipped her off and shattered.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

 ** _End Omake._**

 ** _Aaah, Cindy, her plan was just plain stupid and unreliable. I mean, no one of her underlings really had any loyalty to her, they could've just ratted her out immediately. Plus the White Fang would've never agreed to something like that! Even if Beacon had been destroyed, the four kingdoms should've commited genocide against the Faunus! It's not right, but it's a human reaction. I don't know why canon doesn't do that, but logically the kingdoms should've turned to the Faunus like wolves on a lamb, blaming them for the attack and tearing them apart._**

 ** _Anyway, nothing to add... oh, well, this: SIDE QUEST COMPLETED - RENORA ACHIEVED._**

 ** _Eh, that felt good to write._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	28. Chapter 27

**_And here I am with ViewingTES! I know DarkerShade was left with a horrible cliffhanger, Silver Eyes VS Grimm Jaune, but you gotta live with that! If it makes you feel better, this chapter was one hell of a fun chapter to write!_**

"…and then our Fearless Leader led me and Ren to the left while Ruby led Yang and Pyrrha to the right. We struck quickly and lethally at the Fallen Archvampire Dragonlord's neck, beheading it before it could swallow our friends. The evil creature crumpled under our assault, wailing horribly in its death throes." Nora was standing behind a small fire, the light casting huge shadows on the wall of the volcano's crater. With only her two hands, she was creating the shadow pictures of the so-called 'Fallen Archvampire Dragonlord' and, at the same time, of her and all her friends. On the wall, the creature wailed and fell to the 'ground', raising a huge cloud of smoke. A single figure rose from its corpse. "Then we cut it open and rescued Mr Phoenix from its wicked belly, saving him from a horrible death by digestion. To show his immense and grateful… gratitude!… he brought us all here to watch an alternative universe in which our Fearless Leader has a different Semblance and unknowingly captures the heart of many fair maidens! This, is our epic tale!"

As she finished, Nora bowed deeply, basking in the thunderous applause she received by her friends and Phoenix. All the adults were just looking puzzled, Neptune and Sun were both shocked by her tale, and Cinder was staring at her in disbelief.

"She got better at storytelling," noted Jaune, not without a hint of pride in his voice. After all, she was on _his_ team.

"Much better," nodded Ren. "After she failed to convince you guys about the Ursa-skin-selling thing, she decided she had to get better and better until she could tell all kind of tales. Although I must say, she is much better at it than Professor Port."

"She's insane," stated Cinder.

Phoenix shrugged. "Believe whichever tale you want, mine or hers. I've long since learned to let Nora be Nora." He paused for a second before continuing, more slowly. "Also, she's my Agent of Chaos."

His little grin disappeared as he addressed the pyromancer once again. "Let me make this perfectly clear to you, Cinder. The only reason you're here is because my friend wanted you here, and I respect his wishes. But we both know who you are, what you did and what you _will_ do. We both hold a deep hatred for you, so here is your only warning: you do anything to endanger anyone here or try to learn anything from this world to feed you thirst for power, and you'll regret it. Khor and I know many, _many_ ways to punish you and we will enjoy it very much. By the end of it, you'll be begging for death. Am I clear?"

Cinder lifted her chin in -frankly foolish- pride and replied, "You and your 'friend' do not scare me, _Phoenix_. I am here because I want to know more about the reason I was brought here, but I _will_ leave as soon as I wish to. And I _will_ learn everything I can to improve my powers, as only a fool wouldn't. A fool… like the people you apparently favour. I shall not kill them all right away, because it is not in my interest to do so, but do not illusion yourself: I am free and I shall not take orders from anyone, much less a so-called 'Writer' who thinks he can intimidate me."

Phoenix smirked deviously. "It's funny to see such arrogance from someone so delusional. You see yourself as a mastermind and invincible, when in reality you are nothing more than an attack dog on a tight leash. Ready to sit and speak to please her mistress."

"You know nothing about me!" Cinder growled in fury. "The only reason you're alive right now, is because I don't even consider you worthy of being immolated by me!"

Phoenix's smirk went from malicious to downright vicious as he leaned down to her level, "Mighty words for Salem's bitch." Fortunately for Cinder, Ozpin and his inner circle did not hear that part of the conversation. As much as Phoenix and Khor hated Cinder, starting such a conflict already wasn't on either of them's wishlist.

"I am merely using Salem as a way to gather power, 'Writer'. Once I have it, I shall get rid of that annoying Grimm bitch," Cinder spat back.

His reply was a mere raised eyebrow, "You are going to try to use the Maiden's power, a fragment of Ozpin's full strength, to kill an Immortal? When Ozpin at full power could not. Yeah, that's pure genius. Good luck with that." He turned his back on her, heading for his seat on a cushion, and waved at her dismissively.

"I may have the Maiden's power, but I am powerful by myself too!" Cinder cried in anger, her voice still being heard only by Phoenix, thanks to Khor's magic. "And you shall see, very soon. However, right now I want to learn more about this. You shall be spared, for now. But don't think you are safe yet."

"I'm pissing my pants," Phoenix cried dramatically, before he smirked his trademark grin. "Feel free to try anytime, Fire Bitch."

With a screech of fury, Cinder hurled a fireball at the man, who didn't even bother to dodge. Instead, Helios jumped in the way and snatched the ball of fire in his jaws. Then he began to play with it as if it were a normal ball, even if a little hot. Phoenix chuckled. "See? Even Helios thinks you're child's play."

Ignoring the shrieking banshee who was seething behind him, Phoenix turned to Nora and smiled. "Also, Nora? Do you remember back when the screen was showing Initiation, and you wanted to make explosions as big as the screen-you did against the Nevermore's feather attack? Well, you can, with Jaune's help." He chuckled at her amazed look. "His Semblance is Air Manipulation. Explosions, like fire, require oxygen. The more oxygen, the bigger and stronger it is. So, if Jaune were to push a large amount of oxygen in the centrepoint, the explosions would be much bigger."

Leaving Nora to her daydreams, Phoenix sat down -still ignoring Cinder's attempts at incinerating him- and nodded at the screen. Immediately, the universe continued.

 **Jaune awoke and he felt extremely well rested. The day of reading with Blake must have really relaxed him. He got up and stretched before grabbing his scroll. He checked the date and his mood fell immediately. He took a deep breath before showering and getting dressed. The rest of his team was up when he came out of the bathroom, he grabbed his scroll and went to leave.**

 **"Where are you headed, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked him out of curiosity.**

 **Jaune quickly put on a fake smile and turned to her. "I have a few things to take care of today. Don't worry, I'll be back later. See you guys then." He waved as he left his dorm. He was just about to leave but he realized he was missing his usual hoodie. He remembered he never actually got it back from Blake, so he went to RWBY's door and knocked politely. After a minute or so, Yang answered the door in her pajamas. "Hey, Sun Fire. Did I wake you?"**

 **She shook her head, "Nah, I was about to hop in the shower." She leaned over to get closer to Jaune's face and to give him a peak down her shirt, which per usual, he didn't do. "Feel like joining me?" She gave him a teasing smile.**

"It's too early to deal with Yang's antics…" Jaune groaned.

"Hey, mine is just a one-of-a-kind type of teasing!" protested Yang.

"It may be that, but it's not one anyone of us enjoys, Yang, you should know that by now," remarked Weiss, with her usual frankness. "You may find it amusing, but no one likes to be embarrassed or ashamed just to amuse you."

"Jeez, okay, okay, I'll tone it down," grumbled the blonde girl. "It's just playful teasing."

"Yes, but you often bring it too far, or too often," replied Weiss, effectively ending the argument.

 **Jaune returned the same smile, "That would be amazing but not today. Raincheck?"**

 **She just rolled her eyes playfully and pulled back, crossing her arms below her chest, "You know you shouldn't keep a girl waiting."**

 **Jaune just shrugged, "Anyways, is Blake up? I wanted to get my hoodie back from her."**

 **Yang just looked into the room, "Sorry, Hero, she's still asleep. I could wake her if you want?"**

 **Jaune shook his head, "No, that's fine. I'd feel bad about that."**

 **"Too late." They both turned to see Blake getting out of bed to stretch.**

 **"Sorry if I woke you, Kitten." Jaune said feeling bad.**

"What's with those stupid nicknames?" grumbled Cinder, all but nicely.

"Those are pet names!" exclaimed Nora, smiling as radiantly as the sun. "It's all a very complicated love triangle… no, wait, love hexagon! No… It's… a… a love polygon where a single point is connected to other five points and vice versa!"

"What is she babbling about?" deadpanned the villain in disguise.

"She's referring to the possible romantic opportunities the Swordsman has," sighed Sun, shaking his head. Seriously, how could someone not understand that? He decided that moment that he would become Cinder's trusted mentor in the matters of fluff. He scooted closer to her, ignoring her glare, and drew a paper out of nowhere. "You see, in this universe the Swordsman -here I'm drawing just an 'S' for him- is apparently being liked, and I mean as in _like-like_ , by five women – Team RWBY and his own partner, Pyrrha Nikos. Now, here I'm writing just R, W, B, Y and P, but you get the point." Under Cinder's disbelieving gaze, he connected all five letters to the initial 'S'. "See? All of them are gunning for the Swordsman. However, since none of them is gunning for each other, no polygon can be made out of this figure. As such we can only call this by its true name: a harem. Or a possible harem."

"What?!" exclaimed Cinder.

Sun winced, fearing the worst. "Sorry, you want an in too? I'm sure they wouldn't mind!" He hurried to add a C to the paper and connect it to the S. "See? It's all right, no need to get jealous. Besides, you can share, it's not like you can't have him!"

"Get away from me, you moron!" shouted the fire wielder, pushing him away and burning the paper to crisps.

"Denial is not good for you, it might ruin the whole romance!" exclaimed Sun, grabbing her hand and unexpectedly hugging her. "Here, let it all out, but do not bottle it up! If you become jealous or if you resent the other girls, you might ruin the whole romance, and that'd be terrible!"

Cinder opened one eye, her face pressed into the idiot's shirt, and glared balefully at Phoenix. _'Somehow,'_ she growled in her mind. _'I know this is all your fault.'_

The Writer's only response was to laugh his ass off at the scene.

 **She just shook her head as she walked over, "It's fine. I'm a light sleeper anyways." As she got closer, Jaune saw what she was wearing. Her usual yukata but she was wearing his hoodie on top of it. Jaune could only smile more, realizing she had slept in it made him feel happy, for reasons he did not want to think about right now.**

 **"Did you sleep in my hoodie?" He asked with that same smile.**

 **Blake looked down and realized what she did. She blushed like mad and tried to avoid his eyes. "Not all night. I had another nightmare and I woke up. I had your hoodie on my desk and thought that maybe it would help." She looked down at it and smiled lightly, "You have a way to calm me and it smells like you. In short, it did help." She smiled at him and he returned it.**

 **"Well, that's good. If you ever have another nightmare, just send me a message on my scroll and I'll loan it to you during the night."**

"Nrglbn." Cinder's sarcastic comment was drowned in Sun's shirt, the boy still not willing to let go of the possibly-in-denial girl who _obviously_ had feelings for Jaune.

"No, fight back the jealousy, fight it back!" he pleaded her, his voice thick with despair. "You cannot ruin the… how was it called again? Oh, yeah… the ship I've been cheering on basically since the start!"

"NRGLBN!"

 **She nodded happily before Yang coughed, gaining their attentions, "Well aren't you two acting sweet, if I didn't know better; I'd say you two were a couple." Yang was straining to keep a joking sound to her voice.**

 **Blake picked up on this immediately and stepped towards her, "Why, Yang, if I didn't know better; I'd say you were jealous." Blake said in a teasing tone.**

 **Yang snorted, "Jealous of you? When I got all of this going on?" She motioned to herself. "I think you're the one that's jealous." She said with a slight edge to her voice.**

 **"Really? I do perfectly fine with what I have. Not like I have to throw myself at everyone I like." Blake returned with just as much of an edge. The two were barely separated and they were staring into each other's eyes, Yang's almost turning red. That was until they saw a small vortex of wind forming between them before it expanded and pushed them apart.**

 **They looked at each other before they turned to Jaune. He had his hand out with a wind dust crystal and his eyes were light green, plus he didn't look happy. "Enough." He said this completely serious and the girls didn't know what to do. He took a deep breath before he continued in a calmer tone. "Look, I know none of us intended to be in this position but we are. But before you two developed feeling for me, you two were friends and partners first. I don't want to be the thing that destroys that relationship." The two looked down slightly ashamed. "So, I want you two to promise me something right here, right now." The two looked at him, "Promise me that no matter what, nothing will break up your partnership and friendship. Please?" He smiled at them and they returned it.**

"As long as she doesn't steal my tuna," muttered Blake.

"As long as she leaves my hair alone," replied Yang.

 **"You have my word, Jaune." Blake said.**

 **"Yeah, mine too." Yang said before she turned to Blake, "I'm sorry, Blake. I think I was a bit jealous." She said this as she was scratching the back of her head.**

 **Blake nodded, "It's fine, Yang. I'm sorry too, I said some things I didn't mean. Can you forgive me?"**

 **Yang pulled her into a hug, "Already done, partner." Blake returned the hug and the two just smiled.**

 **Jaune smiled at the two but deep down still felt bad that he was partially responsible for this. When the two stepped apart, Jaune spoke up, "So, can I get my hoodie back?" He gave a small smile and all three laughed a bit. Blake gave it back to him and Jaune gave his goodbyes to them before leaving the dorms. He slowly made his way to the cliffs that he and the other students were launched off of for initiation. He sat down near the edge of the cliff and stared out at the Emerald Forest before he pulled out his scroll and selected the number he wanted. He let it ring until he heard a woman's voice pick up.**

 **"Arc residents?" she said and Jaune just smiled.**

"Oh, we get to see the Arc family!" cheered Nora.

"Let's hope they are less scary than our own universe's version of them…" mumbled Yang, making Ruby shiver.

"Locked in the basement…" was all the short redhead murmured in her shock, a single sentence repeated over and over again.

"Come on, they-"

"They are not that bad, yes, but we are not really eager to be horribly punished by them because we are dating you," replied the blonde brawler. "Seriously, they might be nice to you but to me they sound terrifying!"

"Come on, they even allowed Saphron to move out with a girl and have a child!" huffed the boy. "They didn't even chase her down!"

"How did she do that?" asked Ruby, broken out of her reverie by hope.

Jaune sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Well… she might have forgotten to tell them… plus she didn't tell them where she was living whenever she called… and when they hacked her phone to use the GPS and find her, she used the power of her son's adorableness to keep them at bay."

"So, you say you need to have children?" teased Nora, making all three blush and Qrow groan. "Come on, they'd be so cute! Can you imagine how they would look?!"

The three exchanged glances. Yes, yes they could very well imagine how their children would look.

 **"Hey, Mom." Was all he said.**

 **"Oh, Jaune! It's so good you called, Happy Birthday!" She said cheerily.**

"What?!" all of Jaune's friends exclaimed. The boy himself seemed surprised. "Check the date on the Scroll, see what day is it!"

"Hey, hey, hey, that's not my birthday!" protested Jaune, earning looks from everyone. "I mean… in this universe it's not…"

"Oh, and when is it?" asked Pyrrha, although a few other girls were listening too.

Jaune blushed and looked away in embarrassment. "Well… it's December the 25th… Dustmas."

A few moments of silence later, he was assaulted by his friends. "Your birthday is on Dustmas?!" exclaimed Ruby, shocked.

"And you didn't tell us?!" exclaimed Nora, even more shocked.

"Well, it wasn't something really important…" mumbled Jaune. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you would've found out soon enough. My mother was planning on sending me an Dust Man toy…"

"That's cool, I love Dust Man comics too!" exclaimed Ruby, before she frowned. "But how would that have made us realize it was your birthday?"

"Because it's a scale 1 : 1, working model of the power armour, with HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAUNE written on the chestplate," groaned Jaune. Ruby's eyes were sparkling. "Yes Ruby, you can dismantle it to see how it works. I'm not sure if it really works though, I only know it can move."

 **Jaune just sighed tiredly, "Thanks, Mom. But you don't have to."**

 **"Of course I do, I carried you for nine months. I'm not gonna forget your big day." She said happily. "You're just lucky your sisters aren't here to wish you it as well. You know how they can get."**

 **Oh he knew all right, that was one of the minor reasons why he elected to stay at Beacon for the break. "Really? Where is everyone?" he asked.**

 **"Well, your father, Noir, Blanc and Rouge are still at work. Meanwhile, Olive, Bleu, Rose and Marron are off either with their friends or boyfriend."**

 **"Wait, what!? Who has a boyfriend?!" Jaune practically shouted into the scroll.**

 **"Olive. They started dating recently and they are so sweet together! Reminds me of your father and I a bit." His mother said happily.**

 **Jaune scoffed, "It was probably a good thing I stayed at Beacon then."**

Ruby leaned closer to Jaune to listen what he was muttering.

"SicLunaonhimsicLunaonhimsicLunaonhimsicLunaonhim…"

"Jaune, who's Luna?" asked the young reaper, a little frightened by the look of murder that was written all over Jaune's face. Yang too seemed a little worried.

Phoenix laughed. "Oh, yeah, right. Luna. Khor told me… well, do you remember the Arc sister who liked to mess with Dust? Luna is the result of an accident with some Moon Dust -yes it's a type she created- and Jaune. Or rather, Jaune's shadow. The Dust hit his shadow, and turned it into a living being… or something like that." He laughed awkwardly. "In appearance, just imagine a Jaune with black skin, bloodred hair, red eyes with black sclera and black wings. He is semi-sentient, can't speak, but he _adores_ all the Arc children, especially the youngest triplet. And… he also likes to aid the Arc children in punishing boyfriends and girlfriends."

"How is that possible?!" exclaimed Ironwood. "Even Atlas's best scientists haven't been able to produce a real living being like that!"

"You are not counting the Arc family's insane perception of 'possible', Ironwood," smirked the godlike man. "I do believe that day Khor had a terrible headache due to the tears in the timespace fabric that resulted from that anomaly. Believe me, do not mess with the Arc family. They are very likely to break the timestream into timerivulets just to get back at you."

Everyone began to sweat at that.

 **He heard his mother sigh, "You're just as bad as your father." Jaune chuckled at that. "So, how are my honorary children?"**

 **"Ren and Nora are great, Mom. Same as usual. They're getting along great with everyone."**

 **"And what about their…situation?" She asked timidly.**

 **"Still staying as best friends because each are too afraid to tell the other how they feel in fear of being rejected. So, yeah. The norm."**

 **She sighed in disappointment. "I still don't understand it. Maybe they need a hand…" she said, hinting to Jaune.**

 **"No way. I'm staying out of that. Neither one wants me involved and they have stated it on multiple occasions." Jaune sighed. "I'm having enough trouble with my own love life."**

 **"Oh no, what happened? Did you and Amber have a disagreement?" She asked worried.**

 **Jaune flinched at that. His whole family knew about him dating Amber but when she died, he kept it quiet. He knew how they'd react to it, especially with Gin's death so close to her's. They only knew that they were on a break for the foreseeable future. And he wanted to keep it like that, for now. "No, Mom, and I told you before, we're on a break. This is something…different."**

 _'Amber?'_ Cinder thought about it. _'No, it can't be. Besides, it's not like every person in the world has a unique name.'_

 **"Well, you can talk to me, honey. How else am I supposed to help?"**

 **Jaune took a deep breath, "Well, remember Blake?"**

 **"The girl on Team RWBY that's quiet and reads a lot. Wears a bow and loves that book series you won't give me the name of?"**

 **"Right. Two weeks or so ago, she got into an argument with Weiss and let a big secret slip out. She was afraid and ran away. Weiss said something that got under my skin and I also said a few things I shouldn't have, so I ran. Blake and I met up and stayed a few days in Vale to get some space. We got to know each other better because of that." Jaune said with a smile.**

 **"Okay, so what happened?"**

 **"Well, we were good until we got into a…situation."**

 **"What kinda situation was that?" She asked with deadly tone to her voice.**

"Does she think he got you pregnant?" Neptune asked Blake.

"Probably," she shrugged. "Thankfully it didn't happen, I'm quite not ready to be mother…"

"I'd say you'd do fine, but that would obviously be a lie," snorted Weiss, earning a pillow to the face from the cat Faunus. "Hey, I'm just stating a fact!"

"Worry about your own love life!"

"My love life is perfect as it is!"

 **Jaune gulped before he scratched the back of his head, "We kinda stopped a dust robbery at the docks being committed by the White Fang."**

 **The call was quiet for a long time and Jaune was practically sweating at this point. Until his mother spoke again in a very neutral voice, "Did either of you get hurt?"**

 **"No no no. We weren't hurt at all. Just fatigued." He said quickly.**

 **He could hear his mother take a deep breath, "Alright. What happened afterwards?"**

 **"We went back to Beacon and we made up with everyone. And before we were about to call it a night, Blake kissed me and told me she had feelings for me."**

 **"Oh my OUM! My little boy has a girlfriend again! You have to bring her home!" his mother just kept going on and on.**

 **Jaune just sighed, "No, Mom. Blake knows I'm not ready for another relationship and is alright with waiting until I am."**

 **"I don't see what the problem is." she said confused.**

 **"The problem is, not even a week after that, Yang told me she had feelings for me and kissed me as well!" Jaune practically shouted.**

 **"Isn't Yang the blonde that playfully teases you? Blake's partner and Ruby's big sister?"**

 **"Yeah…" Jaune said defeated.**

 **She was quiet for a second, "I see the problem now."**

"I honestly don't, but yet again I _do_ have experience she does not have," commented Phoenix, for the first time being the first to comment on the screen, without replying to others' comments. "Love is love, it's not something you can analyse like a mathematical problem."

"You are also a shameless entity who does not belong to this plane of existence," grumbled Cinder.

Phoenix laughed. "Okay, time for a little lesson about my home universe. First off, we do not have Grimm, nor any overwhelming threat that dangles over our necks at all times. This, as ironic as it may sound, makes people less peaceful. As my friend Khor says, 'When the big problem is gone, you start to focus on the small ones' and he's right." Phoenix folded his hands together as he thought a little before continuing. "You see, in Remnant people are also more open-minded. Heck, if someone were to have animal traits in my world, he'd be _immediately_ swarmed by all kinds of people, wanting to examine, vivisect and analyse them! Love is too something handled different from Remnant."

He gestured vaguely. "For example, as stupid as that may sound, sexual orientation is still something of a big deal for people. I honestly don't care, and some people don't care, but many think that all people who are not heterosexual are not normal." He raised a hand to stop any protests. "I know, some people think like that in your world too, but in my world it's a far bigger deal. Non-hetero people have organized groups and protests for _the right to marry_ in some places. As you can see, we are not exactly open minded."

"To return to our previous topic, sharing, having multiple partners is not unheard of in our world. However, it is very rare, and to be frank it's _extremely_ disliked by many. Most people don't like the idea, or at least they don't like the idea of _others_ having multiple partners. Unfortunately, hypocrisy is easily found in people." Phoenix sighed. "So, honestly, yes I do know what I'm talking about, and honestly I also know you've got it easier than in my world. So please, stop acting as if you know more than I do, because it's completely untrue."

 **"Yeah." Jaune said as he laid down. "I never even thought about either of them like that but now I keep noticing just how amazing the two of them are. And it's making it impossible to try and figure this out."**

 **"Jaune, honey. Answer me this, could you see yourself with either of them?"**

 **Jaune thought for a second before he answered, "Yes." He took a deep breath, "Blake is so stoic and her presence just puts me at ease. I can just sit next to her and do nothing for hours. Plus, we both know we can trust each other with any secret that we may have." He took another breath, "Yang is just so full of energy and spontaneous. She's funny and it's amazing to see what she will do next. And yeah, we tease each other but under all of that, she is one of the most caring and mature people I know."**

 **"Hmmm, seems like you can't go wrong either way."**

 **"But I can. No matter what, I'm gonna hurt one of them." He placed his arm over his eyes. "And if I don't figure this out soon, I'll just end up hurting both of them." He sighed. "When did my life become so complicated?"**

 **He heard his mother giggle slightly, "Probably when you ran away to become a Huntsman." He groaned slightly at that. "Honey, you obviously care for both those girls deeply. Otherwise, you wouldn't be so torn up about it. So honestly ask yourself, do you think you love either of them?"**

 **Jaune was quiet for a while, thinking about what his mother just asked him. He quickly thought about all the teasings and fights he had with Yang. Along with the times he just read with Blake and enjoyed her company in comfortable silence. He smiled at that and his chest felt warm. He couldn't deny it. "Yeah, Mom. I think I do."**

 **He could just tell that his mother was smiling on the other end of the call, "So, why don't you give them both a shot?"**

"Ha!" exclaimed Sun, still crushing Cinder in a hug. She had apparently fallen asleep, although the keenest eyes could see she had actually passed out for lack of air, thanks to Sun's rather tight grip. "Mama Arc says get them all!"

Phoenix just grinned his trademark shit-eating smirk.

"That's so embarrassing…" muttered Jaune, hiding his face into his hands. His girlfriends would've comforted him, hadn't they been a little too busy being embarrassed themselves.

"Well, let's hope 'Mama Arc' has some serious logical reasons for this suggestion," snorted Neptune. "Seriously, my mother would kill me if she heard I was dating two girls, that's just not fair…"

"I must agree with Mr Vasilias, that is indeed quite the strange suggestion," mumbled Ironwood.

 **Jaune's eyes went wide, "Mom, I can't just date both of them?!"**

 **"Why not?" she said confused. He could picture her tilting her head slightly.**

 **He just sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. "Because I doubt either one of them would agree to that. It would be like me saying, 'Hey, I like you both and don't want to choose. So, why don't you share me?' That just makes me into a conceited prick. And you're my mother. You should be telling me to treat them right, not play with them." He said slightly annoyed.**

 **"Jaune, you are not a 'conceited prick' as you said. You're just someone that has gone through a lot of pain and it's hard for you to listen to your heart because you are afraid of being hurt. Besides, you can't think logically with love. It's the most illogical emotion out there. And you do treat women right. Myself and Gin taught you better than that and with seven sisters there is no way you'd think of any woman with anything besides respect." She said like it was obvious.**

"See? That's _exactly_ what I said!" exclaimed Phoenix. "Why do you always need proof over proof over proof of everything I say? There is a reason I brought you here to show you a new world and not the other way around!"

"Jeez, sorry, it's just a little hard to accept…" apologized Yang.

"That's quite the understatement, Ms Xiao Long," nodded Goodwitch before looking at Ozpin. "Why, Headmaster, you do not seem to be fazed at all. Were you expecting this?"

Ozpin chuckled. With all he had been through? Nothing could surprise him. He had died, then he had been resurrected, burdened with a task that was more like a curse, forced to fight his former love, forced to live life after life after life, and meanwhile he saw the world change around him. Weird? Maybe. He still remembered when humanity first invented firearms. Those were weird back then. Now they were boringly normal. He had gotten used to weird. "No, Ms Goodwitch. I just have a good poker face."

"Mmmhh…" She hummed suspiciously, but she didn't pry any further.

 **Jaune tried to come up with a rebuttal but failed, "Sometimes it's so annoying when you're always right."**

 **"Part of being a mom. But seriously, just give yourself some time. If those two are as understanding and truly like you, they'll understand. All you have to do is just accept your feelings once you are sure of them." She said happily. "And if you're worried on how we'll all react if you do decide to be with both of them, don't worry. Your sisters would accept anyone that stole your heart and your father would just be proud of you. And I love our big family and you would just be making it that much bigger. With the possibility of it getting a lot bigger later." She added teasingly.**

"Is she telling him to date other girls too already?" asked Ruby, ever the innocent one. Well, more innocent than the others, at least.

"No, Rubes, she's telling him to hurry up and have eight children with each," sighed Yang, shaking her head. Eight children, that was insane. That woman's Semblance had to be related to giving birth or something like that.

Ruby blushed bright red and hid her face with her hood.

"Thankfully my mothers are not like that," sighed Jaune. "One is… well… she'd probably forcefully sterilize any girl she sees me with. And not with a precise surgery. The other is much laxer, she'd just threaten to horribly murder said girl. There is a reason why I never brought anyone home…"

"Does your family have even just _one_ trait that is not straight-out terrifying?!" exclaimed Weiss, while all girls crossed their legs defensively.

Jaune thought about it, opened his mouth, and then closed it again, continuing to think. That scared his friends way more than any answer he could've given. But after all, he was used to his family, they weren't. They couldn't find vivisecting endearing, nor they could find funny to pour Decay Dust onto ants and watch them shrivel and die.

Ruby began to shiver at the slightly psychotic grin on Jaune's face as he was lost in thought.

 **Jaune just groaned, "Mom, one problem at a time." He sighed before he grinned slightly. "Alright, I'll think about it and I'll tell you what happens later."**

 **"That's all I ask. Well, I should let you go. I love you, honey."**

 **"I love you too. Give everyone my love?"**

 **"Don't even have to ask. Goodbye, Jaune." She said happily.**

 **"Bye, Mom." He ended the call and just looked out over the Emerald Forest before everything just hit him. "Did Mom just say to have multiple girlfriends?!" he face palmed, "Did things just get more or less complicated?"**

* * *

 **The remainder of Team JNPR were sitting in their room, just relaxing. Pyrrha was tending to her weapons, Ren was meditating and working his aura and Nora was on her bed, reading a comic with her headphones on. They were soon brought out of their little worlds when they heard a knock on their door. Pyrrha got up and answered it to see RWBY at their door. "Hello there, what can we do for you?" She asked.**

 **"Nothing much. We were going to have movie night and wanted to see if you all wanted to join us." Ruby said happily.**

"That's a very nice idea!" exclaimed Ruby. "Why don't we do it too?!"

"Well, technically we are already doing it," Winter pointed out. "We are watching a screen, that is showing a story, and we are all together. Plus magic provides us with food and drinks whenever we wish for them."

 _"I do, not magic, thank you!"_

"Amendment: the 'houseowner' provides us with food and drinks whenever we wish for them," she corrected herself without missing a beat. "So, in a way, we _are_ indeed having a movie night."

"Who votes for ignoring the Ice Queen Sr's comment and watch a movie after this viewing is over?" Yang asked loudly. Many raised their hands. To Winter's shock, even Ozpin did. The man was supremely enjoying the universe they were watching, but taking a break and watch something different was gonna be good too. "Sweet, it's settled then."

 **"That would be lovely, Ruby, but Jaune isn't back yet." She said slightly saddened.**

 **"Well, do you know where he went?" Weiss asked.**

 **Pyrrha just shook her head, "No, he just said he had something to do. I've sent him a few messages but he's only been responding with single word replies."**

 **"That's weird." Yang said. "And none of you know what's going on with him?"**

 **Pyrrha shook her head before they all turned to Nora and Ren, who were sharing a look. Nora nodded and Ren sighed, "We don't know where he went but we do know why he's gone."**

 **"Is something wrong?" Ruby asked concerned.**

 **"Yes and no. Today is Jaune's birthday."**

 **Everyone was shocked by this. "Why didn't he tell us? We could've planned a party!" Ruby said in disbelief.**

 **"Jaune really doesn't like his birthday." He shrugged. "We aren't sure why but he just never has. He only celebrated it because our Mother would throw him a party and he felt like he had to celebrate it. He did enjoy it but he always said to not make a big deal about it." He looked sad for a moment before he went back to being stoic, "He told us a while back to not say anything to you guys about it. He knew you would want to celebrate it and with everything that has happened, he really didn't want a party."**

Everyone looked at Jaune, but he merely shrugged. "Not really similar, to be honest. I've always loved my birthday because my birthday gifts and my Dustmas presents would stack up and become a huge amount of presents." He chuckled fondly as a memory surfaced from his mind. A memory of him holding a vial of Wither Dust, a dark grey swirling semi-liquid substance his sister had given him to try on some plants outside. Then another memory, this time of him helping his other sister to build a cannon that would be able to shoot water balloons all the way into the town, so that they could target his bullies without even exiting their home. He smiled and shook his head. "Really, my birthday is the best day ever, in my opinion."

"Yeah…" Yang trailed off. She could imagine what kind of presents he received. The sudden image of a seven-year-old Jaune holding a bloodied chainsaw while vivisecting a still alive young boy made her shiver, and not in a good way. Damn freaking family of his.

 **By this point, all of RWBY was in their room and was confused. "What do you mean by that?" Weiss asked.**

 **Nora started speaking next, "Jaune never liked his birthday and that just got worse when Mom died. Especially…." Nora just stopped talking but before anyone could ask her, Ren finished her statement. "Mother Gin was killed on his birthday a year ago. Today marks the anniversary of his birth but also the anniversary of our teacher's and mother's death." He said sadly.**

"Oh."

Everyone was quiet at that. Indeed it was a very unfortunate coincidence. Some of them would've argued that Gin wouldn't have wanted him to wallow in sadness because of her, but all of them knew that losing someone wasn't easy. It was never easy.

"Jaune?" Everyone looked at Ren, who was instead keeping his eyes fixed on the screen. "When… when did your father die?"

Jaune shrugged helplessly. "It wasn't on my birthday. September the eleventh."

Ren slowly nodded, thankful that no one of their birthdays fell on that date.

 **Everyone in the room was quiet after that. They all realized why he didn't want to celebrate. Who would after something like that? They were all so deep in thought that they didn't see Jaune walk in with a pair of headphones on. He was shocked to see everyone in his room and hung his headphones around his neck, "Hey, guys. What's the occasion?" Everyone turned to him and Ruby used her Semblance to run into him. She jumped onto his chest and wrapped her arms and legs around him in a hug. She was burying her face into his chest. Jaune had to use all his strength to not fall over before he looked down at Ruby confused. "Um, Ruby, I don't mind the hug but what's wrong?" She didn't say a thing and he looked up to see Yang, Blake and Pyrrha come over to hug him as well. He looked at the others in the room in growing confusion. Weiss looked like she wanted to join in the hug but was conflicted, Nora had a sheepish look on her face and Ren had his usual stoic expression. Something clicked in his head and he sighed. "You two told them, right?"**

 **Ren nodded, "They were concerned and we thought that you wouldn't mind."**

 **Jaune nodded, "No harm. I was going to tell them when I came back anyways." He looked at the four girls hugging him. "Girls, I do love hugs but it's kinda hard to breath." He said jokingly before they let him go begrudgingly, except Ruby. He just looked down at her and shrugged. He walked over to his bed before he started to tickle her mercilessly, she started laughing and eventually fell onto his bed. He grinned down at her before he put his headphones on his desk. He turned to see them all looking at him. "Guys, I'm fine. I just wanted to just process today. I called home and just listened to some music while thinking about some memories of her. Nothing crazy, just wanted to be alone." He smiled at them.**

 **They slowly looked at each other. Before Blake spoke up, "You sure, Jaune?"**

 **He nodded, "Yeah. So, what are you all doing in our room?"**

 **"Oh, right! We were going to invite you all for movie night!" Ruby said happily.**

 **"Sweet! I'll get the popcorn!" He said happily. Everyone smiled and decided to go on with their plans. Jaune enjoyed his time with his friends, they laughed, they cried and just enjoyed their time together. Jaune thought about a lot and as the night started to come to a close, all he could think is that today was a better birthday than he expected.**

"Heh, friends do have the habit of making everything better," smirked Phoenix, adding a subtle 'or worse…' that no one heard. "Oh, and please, wake up Cinder."

"What?" Sun looked down at the unconscious woman and blushed. "Ooops… I may have applied too much pressure. My bad…" He poked her cheek once, then twice, and thrice. Frowning, he shook her, but to no avail. She apparently was a very deep sleeper. "Hey? Cinder? Cinder! Wake up! Oum she's worse than Scarlet!" He frantically shook her, only to be rewarded by a fireball slamming into his face as the woman calmly returned to sleep. "Jeez, she's really not a morning person, is she?"

"Technically, it's not morning," Ironwood pointed out. "However, Phoenix, I do have a question. Why have you brought her here just to let her sleep the viewing through?"

"Heh, I don't care if she miss the viewing. Besides, she didn't sleep, she was unconscious." Phoenix shrugged before a merry music began to play. "Oh, yes, I was waiting for this!"

Hurrying to his feet, he forced Jaune and Pyrrha to sit on a couch that had appeared out of nowhere, and cleared the space around them. "Now, sit there and enjoy the show!" he exclaimed. "My friend sends his regards!"

Then, out of nowhere appeared four suits of armour. The metal was reddish-golden, almost bronze-like, but it was clear that underneath the plates there was no one. They were animated by magic. In their hands they held long halberds with large heart-shaped axe blades, also bronze-brass coloured. The suits of armour stood in a line for a few seconds before the music picked up the pace.

Then, they began to dance, the heads of the halberds lit in merry red flames, to everyone's astonishment and Phoenix's amusement. Helios darted between them, adding his barks to the music.

Twists, pirouettes, fake fights, they did everything. They drew hearts in the air with the flames of their halberds and danced through them. They took each other's arms and circled twice around Jaune and Pyrrha's couch. They held each other, their halberds abandoned on the ground, dancing at the rhythm of a slow music. And then they recommenced with the twists and merry leaps as the music picked up again.

Then finally the madness was over.

The four suits of armour had frozen in place all around the couch, each striking a swooning pose. On their chestplates, the words KISS KISS KISS began to flash with neon lights, making the two teens grow redder than the lava hundreds of yards below. Both were stammering denials, urging the armours to shake their helmets in disappointment.

Phoenix chuckled as the screen began to show the end credits of the performance, and walked up to Pyrrha. "Would you mind if I have a word with you, Pyrrha?"

Still red up to the roots of her hair -actually her hair too was red, but not because of her blush- she nodded slightly. "No, not at all. I'm sure they won't mind," she replied while looking directly at Jaune, who was currently trying to resist to one of the armours, that was trying to push him toward Pyrrha.

Phoenix chuckled and led her down the path they had taken to reach the rocky balcony. Once they were away from everyone, he spoke, "I'm guessing, with that reaction, that you're feeling a bit jealous."

"I… No, of course not. I mean… Lying to you is useless, am I right?" She sighed. Damn omnipotent and nosy entities. "To be honest no, I'm not jealous, I just… wish I could have what they now have. Which sounds like jealousy, but the point is I don't resent Ruby or Yang for… well, having good taste… nor I want them to break up with him. I'm not making any sense, am I?"

He chuckled heartily. "You're in love, nothing makes sense. I'd be more worried if it _did_ make sense. You do know, though, that you could be a part of that, right?"

"It's... it's not as easy as you make it sound, Phoenix. Have _you_ ever had to share?" She was a little peeved by then.

Phoenix blushed and coughed a little. "Kinda… let's just saw _twins_ , and leave it at that, please." He cleared his throat to get rid of the embarrassment. "Anyway, this is kinda the hand you were dealt, Pyrrha. If you had made your feelings clear to him before now, you could've been his one and only. But that would've hurt Ruby and Yang."

"And I don't want to do that. The point is, I'm his partner, I am supposed to look out for his health, and I perfectly know that jumping him with more confessions would _not_ be good for his health." She bit her lip. "I want to do it, but it's not just cowardice, he's seriously in need of sorting things out, adding more wood to the fire is not going to end well for him…"

"You do know he already suspects you have feelings for him, right?"

"Honestly I'm pretty sure he's just waiting for me to say it, by now…" came her downtrodden reply. "But… I don't want to add any more to his burden, it'd be unfair."

"And you keeping quiet is hurting you. Do you think he wants that?"

"He may not want that, but honestly between us there is an… unspoken agreement. I want to be his official girlfriend, but even right now I'm receiving his attentions." Pyrrha shrugged helplessly. "Besides, I'm too terrified of his family."

Phoenix sighed and slowed down until they were walking shoulder to shoulder. "You can lie to yourself that his attention is enough for you, but we both know that it isn't. Maybe it's not ideal, but there is a way you can love him and he'll love you in return. You may have to share him with a few others, but it's either that or nothing at all." He shrugged without looking at her. "But maybe I'm wrong. Hell, if you're able to give up this easily or just because you're afraid of his family, maybe you never really loved as much as you thought."

"How can you say that?!" she exclaimed, pissed. Her voice echoed in the huge crater and bounced back to them. "How can you say I don't love him?! How dare you think you know how I feel!? The fact that I don't want to mentally burden Jaune any further has nothing to do with lack of love! I thought you of all people should understand! Was I wrong? Do you know nothing at all of love?!"

Phoenix turned to her with a smile. "No, I do. And the one thing I know for sure is that actions speak louder than words. That anger you have for me, speaks volumes of your love. And Jaune would be lucky to know for sure that the person that has had his back since initiation, loves him that deeply. Deeply enough to shout at someone who is, by definition, more powerful than this world's gods."

"I will think about it, but please don't continue with your urging. I shall think over your words and take action... in time." She sighed, exasperated. "And _please_ , do not put up any other show like earlier. I was about to die by embarrassment..."

Phoenix quickly raised his hands in defence. "That was not me and I have no control of Khor, so no promises." He gently placed a hand on her shoulder, ignoring the cry of _"Yeah you don't!"_ , and gave her a more sombre look. "Just one last thing. You two are trying to become Hunters. Some never even make it out of the Academies. Just remember that it is completely possible for one of you to be one of them." He removed his hand and allowed his gaze to get lost in the distance, staring off into the void as he spoke quietly, "The things you never get to say are usually the most painful baggage. I know that burden… very well."

She just nodded quietly. Topic over, the two of them walked back to the others, who were in the middle of choosing a movie for the movie night. All in all, things seemed good for the moment.

 ** _I think I had to stop a few times to laugh while I wrote this. I just love making the Arc family adorable and loving yet more than a little psychopathic and terrifying. Fits me to a T. I initially wanted to write a longer dance scene, but honestly I can't dance to save my life so I didn't know what to put. Mind me, it's a stupid little dance of 'just do something silly', not a real dance, but still I had no idea what to use._**

 ** _The talk with Cinder, and the talk with Pyrrha were both written with the help of LordHellPhoenix, of course! Let it never be said that I write such important speeches without consulting the original character!_**

 ** _Cinder passing out for lack of air was funny too, and yes Sun is gonna be her fluff mentor from now on. This is gonna be good._**

 ** _And yes, what Phoenix said is my opinion too, about sexual orientation. Seriously, just let love be love. It's not weird or anything. Alas, people are not so open-minded..._**

 ** _Luna is Grimm-like, by the way. He's a wonderful pet for the family, and no he has no soul... maybe. ^^_**

 ** _Tell me what you think about it!_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	29. Chapter 28

**_Ugh, sorry to the terrible delay. Here I just completed a translation, and I'm ready to accept two more. X_X Also, this year RT won't upload RWBY on YouTube from what I've been told, so my brother is on my ass to get ME to find some way to download it. And while the video is confirmed, in the HTML, as 'downloadable': true, I can't find the download anywhere, so I'm trying to find something else._**

 ** _I know, I know, he's getting things his way while I should've just told him to get lost and do it himself, but my family's relationship with him is already VERY strained as it is, let's not alienate it further. Plus, I would kinda like having V6 on my computer. It wasn't the best volume, but still I have the habit to have RWBY on my computer now. I have 5 seasons, I can't just not have the sixth..._**

 ** _So! As you can see I'm pretty messed up here, so just enjoy this chapter. (PS: I know downloading pirate videos is illegal, guys, no need to tell me. I'm trying to find ways that don't include me searching YouTube for someone who already recorded the whole thing.)_**

True to her promise, Pyrrha did think about what to do with Jaune. She thought about it so much she entirely missed the plot of the movie they were watching, something called Star Powder or something. In a way, Phoenix's words made sense. However, Jaune had told both Ruby and Yang that he'd think about it, despite then acting as if the answer was yes. If he'd said he'd need to think about it, then it meant he probably wasn't ready to be in a multiple relationship yet.

Pyrrha knew he would eventually accept. Love was something that could strike people suddenly, or grow from fondness. Jaune already loved them all as dear friends, so she had no doubts that he would give them all a shot, and it would eventually work out. He would grow into loving them all equally.

Their children would look just too cute.

Pyrrha chased the sudden thought out of her mind, blushing slightly. Her motherly side, the one that took care of the whole team when the team was down, surfaced briefly, providing her with a lovely image of a multitude of kids swarming around her, Jaune, and the other girls. Red, black, red-tipped black, white and blond hair mixed with blue, ice blue, lilac, green, amber and silver eyes, and most of them were cute Faunus. The Mistralian champion's face was basically steaming from the cuteness overload.

At the thought 'cuteness', Cinder finally woke up, stretched, threw a fireball at the nearest Watcher, and then opened her eyes. Upon realizing she was _not_ in her dorm, she blinked. Several times. Having dislodged the sleepiness from her still awakening brain, she scowled. Then she frowned. Finally, the usual Cinder Fall was back, and she settled for a neutral expression of disinterest, ignoring Sun, who was fretting over her, apologizing nonstop for having knocked her out cold. She didn't dignify him with an answer.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha energetically shook her head to clear it from the blushing little Pyrrhas cooing at the mental image. Now was not the time. Alas, the haunting -but beautiful- image could not leave her. Thousands of tiny Pyrrhas piled up in her mind, holding onto the picture as if their imaginary lives depended on it. Pyrrha finally gave up on trying to delete it, and simply continued with her train of thought.

Only to remember that her current train of thought had stopped at its final destination, and nothing more could be said. Jaune loved them all as friends, and was slowly trying to love them as more than friends. He was freaking terrifying when talking about his family, but that was okay. Everyone's family was somewhat intimidating. Hunters, dead people, weird people, every family had its own quirks. But that was beside the point.

The point was, whether she felt ready to tell him or not. She knew what would've happened if she did. He would be surprised, embarrassed, and happy, and she would be the latter two. He would say that he needed time, but that he would be honoured. And then they would fall into a dating-simile until he grew into loving her fully. If she didn't… nothing would've happened.

Put like that, it didn't take long before Pyrrha Nikos reached a decision. She scooted closer to Jaune and opened her mouth to tell him how she felt.

But then Phoenix spoke up, effectively and unknowingly cockblocking her. "Now, I got three things to do before I go. The movie was fun and all, no Nora you can't make Star Dust to make yourself immortal, plus let me tell you being immortal is the worst of curses, but now I got to go."

Pyrrha gritted her teeth together as she glared balefully at the Writer who, for some reason, felt danger looming over him. Shrugging the sensation off, he continued, "First of all, I got this for Helios." He held up a ball made of yellow flames. "Since he is literally part of me, he cannot stay away for long without fading. So, I am replenishing his energies. Alas, I'm afraid he won't be able to stay with you for much longer, but a few more viewings won't hurt."

The godlike entity threw the ball at the large puppy, but Zwei latched onto it before it Helios could. The corgi, however, was not part of a fireproof phoenix, and he immediately let the ball go, yelping and running to the fountain to cool his mouth off. Everyone but Ruby and Weiss laughed at the scene, while the two were busy making sure their little angel -not Jaune, the other- was okay. Helios, after snorting in laughter, devoured the yellow fire and glowed briefly before settling down contently.

Phoenix smiled. "Now, onto the second… Khor had other Writers and Viewers of Worlds look at this universe, basically he was just showing off his skill at documenting it, and they wondered if we could bring in a very particular new guest…" A swirling black portal appeared. "Khor, being the bastard he is, of course accepted. Girls, I _really_ suggest you to move away from Jaune. Just do it, because this new guest is… _Luna_. And he is _very_ protective of Jaune."

Jaune could swear Ruby and Yang left coloured silhouettes as they fled to hide behind their uncle. He could still feel Ruby's phantom weight on his lap, and Yang's phantom grip on his arm. Then the silhouettes moved and fled as well when someone, or rather something, dropped from the portal, landing erect on two feet.

Like Phoenix had already told them, Luna's features were exactly like Jaune's, their hair were equally long and their heights were just as identical, but any resemblance ended there. Luna's wings were so black they seemed to be absorbing the reddish light of the lava, making the feathers' edges glow red like burning coals. The humanoid's hair was dark red, like freshly spilled blood, and it fell down on pure black skin so unrealistically lucid it sparkled slightly in the natural glow of the crater. Luna's burning eyes had no pupil, but the entirety of their sclera was black, making it hard to tell apart from the skin. He seemed to be wearing a wing-adapted butler outfit, and he even bowed politely when Phoenix introduced him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Luna D'Arc. Genetically speaking, a humanoid Grimm with limited intelligence" that earned a growl of annoyance from the figure, "and great understanding of the human language. He is the Arc family's familiar, specifically Jaune's. We shall not mention the other familiars."

Luna and Jaune nodded in unison. "Amen to that."

"Are they really that bad?" Winter asked, somewhat foolishly.

Phoenix chuckled. "You still haven't learned the lesson, huh? The Arc family is beyond crazy. Nora's ideas are reality in their family."

Ren blinked, and turned to Jaune. "So that's why you are always so patient with her. You genuinely believe her ideas possible." He shook his head and chuckled. "Even the fourth-wall-breaking cannon…"

"Wait, what's wrong with that?" asked Jaune. "Now that we know there are people documenting our universe, then it means it's possible for us to break down whatever divides us, and go visit them, right?"

"I don't think it works like that, but yet again the Arcs are famous for making things work even when they were supposed to be impossible." Phoenix patted Luna's shoulder while the Grimm Butler sat down beside Jaune.

Pyrrha's chances of asking him out without dying zeroed that second, and she groaned. _'Khor really is an ass…'_

 _'Yep!'_ an eerily familiar voice spoke up in her head.

 _'Argh! What are you doing in my mind?!'_ Pyrrha jumped up in shock, earning looks from everyone.

 _'What? I can read your mind, did you think I couldn't write your mind as well? I'm a Writer, after all…'_

 _'Get out of my head!'_

 _'I've heard that already, but jeez, okay, don't get your panties in a twist, or Jaune won't be able to pull them down…'_

With that parting jab, the voice vanished… for the time being. Pyrrha blushed furiously and turned to look at the wall. Yes, the wall was very interesting and, most of all, a safe thing to look at. Unlike some tempting winged boy sitting just a few yards away from her… and his terrifying Grimm alter-ego sitting beside him. Damn the Arc family's craziness, and damn Phoenix. And Khor too.

Phoenix cleared his throat, "Anyway, moving onto the last thing I have to do before I go, I have something for you, Cinder." He held out a letter package. "I have no part in this, it was all Khor and someone else."

Cinder gingerly took the package and opened it, revealing a letter and what appeared to be a folded old photo. Curiosity getting the better of her, she silently read the letter.

 _'Dearest Cinder,'_ it read, _'You do not know me, but if you ask the others I have given them either advice or gifts during their stay. I do not have a gift for you but words of advice. I know you may not believe me when I say I care about helping you, but believe me when I say that I do this because I knew your mother and I feel I could not look her in the eye if I didn't try to help you.'_

Cinder stopped reading and glanced up at Phoenix, who shrugged. "Khor told me the sender is the father of some alternative versions of you. Not in this one, but you know us Writers: we tend to reach even out of our universe," he concluded with a smirk.

Scowling at him for a second, Cinder then returned to read. _'You have been given a chance to get away from the monster who_ _ **will**_ _kill you as soon as you are no longer of use to her. You are your mother's daughter, act like it.'_ Cinder snorted, knowing that different universes could have different parents as well. _'Talk to Arc, his family will welcome you and your… pyromaniac ways. They won't turn you away for loving to burn those who hurt you and your friends. I know you aren't into men after what happened to your mother and they will accept it.'_ "Seriously, who does he think he is? My romantic preferences are mine to decide, thank you," she grumbled under her breath. _'As for Sun wanting to teach you about Fluff and Romance I say learn what you can, I know you like cute animals and will kick the ass of anyone who hurts any cute animal or little kid around you, this will just make you a little more balanced mentally.'_

Again she scoffed. "I was literally planning on burning Vale down to ashes, animals and children included, and that's what he tells me? How wrong he is…" she murmured to herself.

 _'Please try to make friends with the group, we know you will backslide at times but put an effort in it. They will never betray you, or leave you when you go on a pranking/burning/revenge spree. Some of them will even help you. I also managed to find a picture your mother gave me many years ago and thought you could use a reminder of your gentle side. Signed, Adrian Midnight-Phoenix, Concerned Friend, Writer, Uncle of Heroes, Father of Villains, Ancient Warrior. PS: Cinder, ask Phoenix or Khor for some art supplies. I know about your hobby and I know everyone there would enjoy seeing you paint. You are talented, don't waste it like Salem made you.'_

She scoffed and looked at the photo. It portrayed a much younger Cinder, maybe five or six, wearing a red T-shirt and blue jeans, with her hair combed in a French braid, while holding a white bunny and looking up at the camera with a big smile on her face. Hugging Cinder from behind there was who was probably her mother, wearing a light blue button-up blouse, unbuttoned to show the white T-shirt underneath, and a worn pair of blue jeans. She had long auburn hair frozen in mid-movement, probably due to a gentle breeze. She was looking at Cinder with a loving smile. The two of them were sitting beside a rose bush near a large apple tree.

Once again, Cinder scoffed. "I've never seen this woman in my entire life," she commented. "And this 'Adrian' obviously knows nothing about me. I do not even like to paint!"

Phoenix shrugged in response. "Cinder, he was just concerned and before you ask yes, I knew what was written in that letter. He was just concerned, and he tried to help you like he would've helped the Cinder of his world." He chuckled. "Though, the advice to make friends with the Arcs is sound. Even if you don't like them, better be their friends, than their enemies."

Luna grinned in agreement, showing off pointy teeth and making most Watchers shiver.

Phoenix laughed at their reactions before flames began to envelop his frame. "Ah, well, it seems it's time for me to go, and for the viewing to start. Enjoy!" He clapped his hands and burst into flames, and at the same time, the screen lit up.

 **It was Thursday of the first week of the break for Beacon students, Jaune was getting extremely stir crazy. He chalked it up to doing nothing physical the last two days. After the extreme workout from Nora and Yang, he decided it would be in his best interest to relax. He elected to work on his Semblance for a bit. He grabbed his scroll and sent a message to Weiss.**

 **Jaune: Hey Snow Angel! You busy right now?**

Luna growled menacingly at the white-haired girl, but Jaune leaned in and whispered in his ear, filling him in on how the screen worked. After a snort of annoyance and a huff of acceptance, Luna settled back down, and everyone else sighed in relief. They could probably defeat the monster, but he was surely scary.

 **After a minute or so he got a response from her.**

 **Weiss: I'm going over some notes. Why?**

 **Jaune: I'm just bored. I was thinking of working on my Semblance, if you don't mind accompanying me that is.**

 **Weiss almost instantly responded.**

 **Weiss: I don't really have a choice. Otherwise you may do something stupid. Where are you?**

 **At this point, Jaune was out of his room and leaning on his door. He smiled before sending his next message.**

 **Jaune: I'm outside the dorms.**

 **He could hear a raucous coming from the room before he received a message.**

 **Weiss: I'll be their soon.**

 **Next thing he knew; the door swung open before Weiss rushed out the door. She got halfway down the hall before Jaune whistled. She stopped and turned in shock to see him standing in front of her door. He waved and with a smirk said, "You in a hurry?" She blushed as he walked up next to her and stopped. "I didn't know you cared so much, Snow Angel."**

 **She blushed more before she glared at him, "Shut it."**

Luna automatically smacked Jaune on the head, making the boy groan. When the others stared at him, surprised, he sighed. "Mom taught him that if I try to flirt with a girl or a boy, he has to smack me to 'preserve my purity'," he explained tiredly, making a few others chuckle, especially Neptune. "And… he's very obedient."

Unbeknownst to everyone, Helios and Zwei began to quietly chat in a corner, hatching their terrible plan.

 **Jaune just smiled, "The glare really doesn't work when you blush. It just makes you look adorable." He said with a smile. She blushed even further before she started walking down the hallway at a brisk pace. Jaune chuckled before he caught up to her. The two walked in silence to the locker room. Jaune pulled out his blades and checked the dust levels on all his swords. They were all a bit low and he took out a few vials of dust from his locker to fill them. He sighed while doing this. "This is by far the most tedious part of my design."**

 **Weiss was watching him as he worked, "Why did you design them like that, then? I mean, I go through the same thing with Myrtenaster so I understand a bit on how tedious it actually is."**

"Don't you have clips?" asked Ruby, surprised. She knew her partner's weapon by heart… even thought Weiss hadn't exactly _allowed_ her to analyse it, if by _allowing_ one did not include 'leaving on the bed unwatched'.

Weiss shrugged. "Yes, but apparently my alternative version does not."

"Aww, but that's so weird! Why not use clips?" whined Nora. "They're much faster, and the faster you reload, the more hits you can fire, and the more hits you can fire, the more monsters you can kill, or legs you can break!"

Cinder stared at Nora like one would stare at a dangerous, but very interesting snake. "You seem to nurture a great love for chaos and destruction," she noted airily.

"Oh yes, but only when it's deserved!" cheered the hammer wielder. "I would never do it on someone who doesn't deserve it!" And just like that, Cinder's interested faded away.

"Tsk, whatever," she scoffed as she returned to look at the screen.

 **Jaune just chuckled, "Actually, I had an idea to create dust clips for my swords. You know like how some guns have clips for bullets? I thought it would be good to have clips of dust to just reload when I needed to and it would help when I ran out in the field." He sighed. "But that idea just isn't possible right now."**

 **"Why not? It doesn't seem like a bad idea or one too complicated to do." She asked.**

"Yeah, I could do that in just a handful of minutes!" exclaimed Ruby.

"Ruby, you could disassemble and rebuild Crescent Rose in under an hour," noted Yang, pointing at the giant scythe resting folded on her back. "Of course you could make those, but not everyone can."

"Oh, rubbish! We already saw the Swordsman taking care of his weapons and he designed those, and those are super-complex, so of course he could do that!" countered the smaller girl. "So the problem must be something else."

 **"Oh it wouldn't. I have the blueprints for them right here." He pulled out his scroll for a second before returning back to his pocket. "It's just that I can't do it right now, wouldn't be right."**

 **Weiss was confused. "What do you mean, Jaune?"**

 **Jaune sighed, "Ever wonder how Nora, Ren and I pay for everything?"**

 **Weiss didn't know where this was going but continued with it anyways, "I actually never really thought about it. I guess your family."**

 **"You're half right. When Mother died, she left everything to the three of us. The property she owned, the house that we lived in together and all the money she saved away from missions." He gave a sad chuckle, "Apparently, she set her will up way before her death. Guess she knew something may happen to her." He sighed, "Anyways, we have enough to keep us comfortable until we graduate and a good amount of time afterwards, but if I were to take the money necessary to upgrade my swords, we wouldn't be in as good of a spot." He looked back down to refilling his swords.**

 **Weiss nodded before continuing, "Could you ask your family for money?"**

 **Jaune rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "I probably could but I won't. After all the worry I put them through while I was away training and not really talking much to them during that time." He sighed. "It just wouldn't feel right. I want to prove to them that I'm not the same kid I was when I ran away. I want to do it on my own."**

"So, basically, it's just pride," scoffed Cinder. "He is not improving his swords because he's too proud to ask for help from his family."

 _"Look who's talking!"_ a voice rang out in the clearing, making her jump. _"Oh, right, I'm the asshole who brought you here. The name's Khor, but you can call me Khor."_

"He does know he just said his name twice, right?" asked Ruby. "Do you think he had a slip of the tongue?"

"I think Mr Khor is just making fun of Ms Fall… or maybe of all of us," Winter spoked up suddenly, reminding everyone of hers and Ironwood's presence. "I wouldn't take him too seriously."

Cinder grunted in response, not elaborating further.

 **Weiss just absorbed all of this. She was never in a spot like the one he was in. As much as she disagreed with her father, she had money to do whatever she wanted. Not to say she used it for anything too out there, she preferred to not feel like she owed her father anything. But just seeing Jaune being responsible for his friends and siblings was like a breath of fresh air. She was always around selfish and self-centered people growing up. But Jaune was the complete opposite to all of those people. It made her happy to be friends with someone like this. Especially seeing how driven he was to prove he wasn't what people thought he was, it made her feel like they had a kinship.**

 **She was brought out of her train of thought as Jaune waved his hand in front of her face. She blinked a few times before she looked up at him, "Sorry, Jaune, I was distracted. Did you say something?"**

 **He just smiled, "I was asking if you mind bringing Myrtenaster with us? I have an idea for training my Semblance."**

 **She didn't ask, knowing he'd only tell her when he wanted to. She grabbed her rapier from her locker and the two made their way over to the edge of the forest where they usually went. Jaune than turned to Weiss, "Okay. I was wondering if you'd mind helping me train the five basic elements of my Semblance?"**

 **Weiss was confused for a second, "You don't want to work more on Particle?"**

 **Jaune shook his head, "I've done everything I can to try to master it at this point. The only thing left is for some actual battle experience. But with Particle, it's too dangerous to use for any training bouts or spars, so I'm gonna shelf it for the time being. Instead, I'd rather work on the basics for my Semblance. Haven't done that in a while and I'd rather not neglect them."**

 **She nodded, "What do you have in mind?" Jaune explained that he was planning to use each of the five basic elements and he wanted Weiss to use her glyphs to help with his exercises. She agreed as long as she got to set the parameters for the training. He agreed and the training began. Jaune set his swords and scroll to the side so they wouldn't get damaged.**

"Okay, a small rule here, please," Sun spoke up. "No one can comment on the training until it's over. I've noticed that the screen stops every time someone has something to say, so to get to see the whole scene without problems, let's keep the comments for later, okay?"

'Fine by me' was the most heard reply he got, mixed with some 'Okay' and 'I have no problem with that', even though Cinder replied 'No'. With that, the screen continued.

 **They first started with water. Weiss would summon many smaller Glyphs around Jaune and use them to fire ice shards at him. He'd have to use his advanced reflexes to dodge all of them. They would go for a full ten minutes, if Jaune got hit once, they'd have to reset the clock. Weiss would not set any kind pattern to her attacks, she'd chose random Glyphs at random times and she would increase the speed and frequency of the attacks the longer they went for. Jaune did very well at this but when the speed was almost at max and several shards were flying, he'd get hit. He'd heal almost instantly but he would get annoyed with himself. By the end, Weiss was impressed by Jaune's improvement levels. She was curious what he'd do with something else. So, with the last twenty seconds of the ten minutes, she had all her Glyphs fire shards simultaneously. Jaune accepted the challenge, he grabbed two shards and used them to deflect any shards he couldn't dodge. With that, the water exercise was done.**

The screen suddenly paused, making Sun groan, as the words PLEASE COMMENT overwrote the scene in large, bold black letters. Neptune chuckled at his leader's plight. "It seems the houseowner does not share your philosophy, Sun."

"I think he's just choosing right now to pop up and cause some trouble," sighed Pyrrha, remembering the Writer speaking in her head. "Hopefully, he'll stop soon."

"I think the exercise was definitely aimed to make him improve," Weiss finally commented, making the words disappear. "Although I might argue against pushing himself so much. It's not healthy."

 **They moved onto lightning next. The exercise was a simple race. Weiss would use one of her Time Dilation Glyphs to send herself towards a tree a hundred meters away. Jaune was tasked with using his higher speed to reach the tree before her. They both got into their ready positions and the race would begin when her Glyph disappeared. The first race ended with Weiss beating Jaune by a half a second. The sequential races ended the same way. Weiss wasn't as fast as Ruby using her Semblance but that just proved how slow Jaune was moving. The last race he did something a bit different, he kept the electricity moving in his body while he was waiting for the race to begin. That way his energy would still be in motion and would take less time for it to reach where he wanted it to be. The result was Jaune getting there a half a second before Weiss and to annoy her, he caught her in his arms. She blushed profusely and tried to push him away. He just chuckled before complying.**

Again, the words appeared on the screen, and Sun was close to having a mental breakdown. Unbeknownst to them, the Writer wasn't doing that to be an ass like usual, but just to get some thoughts on the training scenes from people used to those fighting styles. After all, they were the best suited to tell whether the exercises were hard or not.

They totally were.

Anyway, Ruby spoke up next, "That's nice, although he should focus more on his manoeuvrability while speeding, as well as countering the tunnel-sight you get when you go so fast." She then pouted a bit. "Although, the fact he's slightly bitter about not being as fast as me is weird. I mean, half of my entire Semblance is about being fast, of course I am faster!"

"Not really, Ms Rose, more skilled people can be faster than you even while you use your Semblance," noted Ozpin, making her slump. "However, I can say that they must be vastly more skilled, and with experience you will improve as well."

"Also, I guess we can all say that the Swordsman blames himself for the death of Gin and for whatever happened to Amber," interjected Jaune. "This made him obsessed with become stronger, so he won't see it that way, but he'll see it as himself not being skilled enough. In a way he _is_ slightly psychopathic because he's deluding himself into thinking that if he gets stronger than anyone and anything else, he'll be able to protect who and what he loves, refusing to accept that, sometimes, we just can't do anything."

"Wise words, Mr Arc," Ozpin complimented him sombrely. "I… I suppose you have learned that lesson from your father's demise, am I right?"

Jaune shrugged. "Kind of. He was so strong, yet when he tried to protect the people he cared for, he just died without changing anything. But no, after I got over my depression I too was obsessed, until my sisters quite literally beat it out of me." He smiled weakly and patted his Grimm companion's shoulder. "And Luna helped them, of course. I thought that had I been stronger, I would've been able to do something, but obviously I was wrong. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do."

 **Afterwards, the two decided on how to work on wind. Weiss created a dozen or so Glyphs in the air as platforms. He'd have to jump on to all of them within three minutes. But with each Glyph he stood on, it would disappear when he jumped off of it. So, he'd have to figure out the best path quickly. Especially because Weiss would change their orientation every time he failed. Luckily, due to Jaune's increased stamina he could go with this exercise much longer than the rest of the exercises. They went for about half an hour before they both needed a break. Once they were rested, they went at it again. Jaune soon figured out how to do the platforms and figured out the pattern; either by luck or keen eyes. He also used the nearby trees to better angle himself to complete the course and Weiss gave him additional points for creativity.**

"That was useful," was all Blake said, cutting everyone else off, when the words flashed on the screen.

 **That's when they went onto earth. Weiss would place a Gravity Glyph directly above him, while Jaune was in a meditative position. His task was to use his arms or hands to stop a series of rocks from hitting him. She had twenty-five rocks but for each one that hit him, she would add a minute onto the time he had to stay under the increased gravity. Jaune did fairly well but a few rocks did get past him due to his already slowed state being increased by the gravity. He had to stay another ten minutes under the Glyph and she was still throwing rocks at him. But the more it went on the less rocks hit him and eventually his time under the Glyph was done. He was kinda sore afterwards but he decided to just deal with it.**

"And that was mean," Pyrrha commented when it was her turn, glaring slightly at Weiss. "There was no need to make the training so harsh."

"If he is really obsessed like Jaune said, then the harshness of the training will be more to ease his worries about not training enough, than to actually help him improve," Weiss shot back. "We all know that training should not ruin the body nor the mind."

Qrow laughed. "Heh, back when STRQ still was a team and not a bunch of people going different ways, Summer always said that if after training we were too tired to go all-out against two teammates, then we were doing our training wrong, because spending all your energies on training is possible only when you're not planning on being reactive." He smiled fondly. "That didn't mean we could slack off, of course. It just meant that we were forbidden to overexert ourselves. I think I still have the pictures of Raven's punishment when she ignored Summer's suggestion slash order."

"What happened?" asked Nora, cheery as always.

"That's top secret," chuckled the Hunter. "But it involves hair, and electric blue paint."

 **Finally, all they had left was fire. For this element Weiss decided to keep it simple. She would create a Glyph as a shield, all he'd have to do is break the Glyph within the time of a minute. Jaune thought this would be simple but decided to go along with it anyways. He failed to realize that Weiss was focusing a lot more on this Glyph, so it'd be twice as hard to break through it. This was her payback for him teasing her earlier. After several failed attempts, Jaune was doubled over breathing heavily. His fire enhanced aura was killing his stamina; he couldn't keep this up but he refused to give in.**

"That's awesome!" Yang exclaimed before the words could even appear on the screen, earning a grateful look from Sun, who was really tired of seeing the training being interrupted.

 **Weiss was thinking that he had enough and was about to call it when Jaune stood tall and closed his eyes. He focused all of his aura into his right fist and it looked like his fist was pure fire. He opened his eyes and with a cry of exertion punched the Glyph with the last of his strength and aura. The Glyph shattered and Jaune grinned in triumph before he passed out from exhaustion. Weiss ran to him immediately, fearing she pushed him too far.**

 **Jaune woke up about twenty minutes later. He noticed that he was laying on Weiss' lap as she was sat against the tree. She looked relieved that he was awake. "Jaune! Oh thank Oum, I thought I pushed you too far. I was worried."**

"Whew, that's a lot of time," winced Qrow. "Twenty minutes out cold. Yeah, Sum would've had his head for overexerting himself so much…"

"She sounds way less 'soft' than what Ruby and Yang told me," noted Jaune, raising an eyebrow.

Qrow chuckled. "Not really, she was caring with her team. She just was protective of the ones she called family. The first time someone insulted Raven because 'her Semblance was too broken', Sum sent them through three walls. And only three just because after the third there was the courtyard."

"Sounds badass," grinned Nora.

"Oh yes, she really was," smiled the man, while Ruby and Yang smiled a little more tearily.

 **Jaune just shook his head, "No, I'm fine Weiss. But, um, why am I am using your lap as a pillow?"**

 **She was slightly embarrassed and her cheeks turned pink, "I didn't know what to do. So I thought I should let you sleep it off and I thought the ground would be too hard."**

 **Jaune just looked at her and smiled, "Thank you, Weiss, that was nice of you and I'm sorry I worried you. I kinda guessed I would pass out after that maneuver I pulled." He chuckled weakly.**

 **She just looked at him mildly annoyed, "Why didn't you tell me that you were going to try something reckless? Why try it at all?"**

 **Jaune just looked up at the sky above him and saw the sun shining through the leaves of the tree above them. "Somethings are just worth the risk." He reached his hand up to the sun to protect his eyes from the light. "If I don't push myself to the brink, I won't improve as much as I need to. I need to be able to protect you all if the time comes." His eyes took on a serious look and he clenched his fist that was in the air. "I will protect the people I care about. I refuse to fail ever again."**

"That. That needs to be addressed _right now_ ," said Ironwood, standing up as the screen stopped, and turning to all the Watchers. "I know few among you currently like me due to my dislike for Mr Arc, but right now I'm not speaking as James Ironwood, nor as General of Atlas, nor as Headmaster of Atlas Academy. No, right now I'm speaking as experienced Hunter, and I need you all to understand."

That got him the attention he wanted. Everyone -even Luna, he noted- was focused on him. He cleared his throat, "Ozpin babies you in Beacon. He hides the true reality of the world from you for as long as he can. And… I can understand that. However, you are now seeing parts of a world you are not prepared for, thus allow me to fill you in on what you should know." He pointed at the screen. " _That_ , is an admittedly admirable, but ultimately foolish, self-destructive and pointless behaviour."

"What?!" exclaimed Ruby, outraged. "He just said he wants to protect the people he cares about!"

"No, Ms Rose, he said he _will_ , and that he _refuses to fail ever again_. That's much different from _wanting_ to protect. The will to protect should be present in all Hunters. However, his crosses the border into obsession." Ironwood sighed dejectedly. "It happens to the best of us, believe me. Once you lose someone you care about, the closer the worse it is, there is indeed the chance of becoming obsessed. Your soul simply refuses to go through such emotional pain again, and thus tries to find an out. And since the only way out is to avoid anyone to die, you become obsessed with becoming someone or even _something_ that will be able to protect everyone you care about. And that's horrible."

"It's horrible because you lose yourself. You do not see yourself as anything but a tool to prevent yourself from feeling that pain again. You are hurt, you are deeply hurt, and instead of healing you focus on never be hurt again. And while that _would_ be a good strategy if it were successful, sadly it is just not possible." Ironwood closed his eyes to avoid looking into anyone's eyes. "That's the truth no one of you can really understand, that you just can never be strong enough. Sure, you might _say_ you understand but you never do. In the end, whenever something will happen, you will still think you can save everyone if you try hard enough. And that will end up destroying you from within, like it… like it did with me."

When he opened his eyes again, they were hard, but the students were shocked to see tears in them as well. "I am a General and the Headmaster of a Hunter Academy, students. You have no idea of how many people I've seen dying, and I could not do the slightest thing about it. Killed by the Grimm, or by bandits, or anything. And I'm not talking about missions I sent people on that failed. No, I'm talking about people I have _personally_ seen dying. People I… people whose family I…"

He choked out a broken laugh. "Do you even know how hard it is to look in their families' eyes and tell them that the person they cared for most in the world just _won't ever come back?!_ Do you even know how hard it is to speak with them, knowing that secretly they wish you had swapped roles, that their loved one had come back instead of you?! To secretly agree with them, because maybe dying wouldn't be as painful as being the one remaining alive?!"

The once-proud General fell back on the ground as all the students' eyes were fixed on him. He was shaking. "You don't know how many times I remained the last of my entire platoon. There are still days I wish I had died with my comrades back during those missions." He glared at everyone with a gaze of steel. "So don't you dare forget this. What the Swordsman is doing is not _admirable_ , it's not _right_ and it's not _amazing_. It's the mindless reaction of a hurt person who doesn't think he can take more." The General broke another laughter. "Oh, let me tell you, you can always take more. There's not limit to how much pain you can take." Returning to glare at them, he finished his speech. "The Swordsman might not be blameable for that, but don't take what he's doing as _awesome_ or awe-inspiring. It's twisted. It'd be like being amazed by seeing a man starve himself rather than eat anything else after having been poisoned. You should feel pity, not awe."

With his piece said, the General lowered his head and refused to look at the screen, not bothering to hide his pain and his tears. The adults were sad but unsurprised, having already known both of the man's pain and the truth he spoke, but the students sat in silence. They still hadn't and wouldn't learn that very important lesson, but they did stop looking at the Swordsman's obsession with awe.

 **Weiss just looked down at him and just saw how determined he was. It was baffling to her to see both of these sides to this one man. The side that was fun loving and made everyone smile, along with this serious side that would do anything to achieve his goals. She was in awe. "How, Jaune?"**

 **He just looked at her confused, "How what, Weiss?"**

 **"How are you so strong? You've gone through so much but you still keep going. It's like the world could turn against you but as long as you have the people you care for, you wouldn't care. People judge me because of my father and our company, and it just hurts so much. So, I've had to hide all that pain under this cold exterior." She closed her eyes to stop the tears she could feel forming. She was stronger than that. "But, it still hurts so much." She stopped when she felt him sit up and wrap his arms around her.**

Before Ironwood's speech just moments before, the students would've probably shared the onscreen Weiss's feelings. However, now that their view of things had changed, they found themselves hoping that the Swordsman would learn from Weiss, accepting the pain instead of trying to block out more from coming.

 **"It's okay, Weiss. You don't have to be strong all the time. I know how hard it is to try. So, for this one time, you can let it out. I won't judge you and I will keep it a secret if you wish." Her resolve melted away at that, she just started to cry. All the pain she felt over the years just came to the surface as her icy exterior was being thawed. Jaune just sat there holding her close and let her cry. He gently stroked her hair as she did. They sat there for a few minutes and eventually she stopped. He looked down at her. "Are you okay?"**

 **She nodded slightly but didn't look up. "Thank you, Jaune. I can't remember the last time I could just let go." She still didn't look up at him.**

 **"No problem. I'm here for you, Weiss, as long as you let me do so. And to answer your question, I'm strong because I can't afford to be weak." She looked up at him and she still had a few tears falling. "You all look to me in some way or another. I need to be strong enough to live up to those standards and if the time ever comes that I need to be there for the ones I care for, to not let them down." He smiled slightly and gently wiped away her remaining tears. "That includes you, Snow Angel."**

"And that's something else that is very unhealthy, although this is partially your other selves' fault and not just the Swordsman's. Expectations should never be a motivation," Goodwitch spoke up. "If met, they only create more expectations. If failed, they create disappointment. Either case, it is not the right way."

"However, in this case it is just a misunderstanding. Your other selves wouldn't leave the Swordsman if he turned out to have failed their expectations, or at least I hope so," continued Ozpin. "Mr Vasilias, you have often lamented that the Swordsman seems to have no flaws. Here you are, these are his flaws. He has a flawed mentality that can only bring himself pain and thus, bring pain to the ones he cares about. A mentality he has to end if he doesn't want to bring pain to the ones who worry about him."

 **She blushed slightly but smiled, "I told you before Jaune. I trust you and believe you. You won't let any of us down." He smiled brightly and she looked down before she continued, "And Jaune, if you ever need to let go and not be strong for a bit." She looked back up at him. "You can come to me. Anytime."**

 **He nodded, "You got it, Snow Angel." They sat there for a bit longer before he let her go. She instantly wished for him to hold her again but she quickly shook her head to dismiss those thoughts. She saw he was offering his hand to her and she accepted it. They collected their weapons but Jaune was looking for something. "Hey, Weiss, do you know where my scroll is?"**

 **She held it out to him, "Sorry, I checked it to see how your aura levels were." She looked away for a second. "I also looked at those blueprints for those dust clips. I was curious."**

 **Jaune took his scroll back, "No problem. Well, let's head back." She nodded and they made their way back to the dorms. Weiss was smiling the whole way, not just because she felt a great weight lifted off her shoulders. But because she had a surprise for Jaune in the near future.**

"I'm betting she will find a way to make him cry like he did for her," stated Nora, for once not breaking the laws of rationality to sate her curiosity. For that, somewhere else in the Multiverse, a young Writer sighed in relief. His last encounter with Nora hadn't ended well… especially the explaining he had to do afterwards.

"Whatever it will be, I'm sure we will soon find out," Ozpin replied wisely, hiding a smile behind his mug. "Besides, it is clear the Swordsman has people to care for him. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you."

 ** _Oh, in this chapter Luna appears and Khor is being even more of an ass. Don't worry, it was just this chapter, I won't intervene so much in the next ones. I don't plan to, plus my 'presence' would be pointless and ridondant. This chapter was a surprise that some liked, some didn't, but it won't become the norm._**

 ** _Moving on, I am not criticizing LordHellPhoenix's work, the opposite. He's portraying flawed characters without making those flaws horrible or without losing logic. Not many do that. Often, flaws are thrown in the mix just to try and add depth to a character, but flaws usually have an explanation. Few people train until they pass out just because they have fun doing it._**

 ** _And this proves I am not bashing Ironwood, he just has more experience and a view of the world that is more jaded than the students'. This makes him look like the bad guy as long as we look at it from the students' PoV, but he is actually right most of the times._**

 ** _This being said, I'm out. Out where, still don't know. Probably to work, ugh. And I'm not even getting paid..._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	30. Chapter 29

**_Well, here I'm posting this at 18:23 of my birthday._**

 ** _Sorry to say, it's been my worst birthday thus far. My parents are pissed since my little brother is being more problematic than usual, I am forced to bunk with my twin brother, I'm also sick, and two days ago my grandmother died. So yeah, shitty days._**

 ** _On the bright side, at least I love what's for dinner. Rice rissoles, heh._**

Before the next viewing could start, they were all shaken from their thoughts by what appeared to be a minor earthquake. Now, while none of them were worried about the earthquake per se, there was a small detail they all took in consideration, that was… they were right in the middle of an active volcano. And upsetting the lava's balance in an active volcano… would not be a wise choice.

Fortunately, the tremor soon passed, and the lava seemed to be just boiling and bubbling, without any sign of raising. All Watchers exhaled in relief at that. "Honestly, I thought Khor was going to make the volcano erupt," Yang commented lightly. "Just to scare us."

"Given how his fortress is still _in_ the volcano, I doubt he would do that," replied Ozpin, sipping his mug. "But even if his fortress were to be protected from the magma, we must not forget that there is an entire world outside of this crater, and a world lives on without the will of a Writer. So this might just have been a minor tremor caused by something happened outside."

"I wonder how it is outside," chirped Nora, cheerful as usual. "I mean, come on guys, _a different world!_ Can you imagine it?"

"It would indeed be a sight to see," Winter, incredibly, agreed with the hyperactive gingerhead. "However, we must remember that we don't have any mean to reach the top, as Phoenix said that the crater outside the cooling spell is hot enough to burn us alive. Furthermore, we might not like what we find, and finally I am not sure we have the houseowner's permission to leave this place. We are from another universe, remember, not native of this world."

"Aww…" pouted Ruby. "And here I was hoping to see if this world was made of cookies…"

"Or pancakes…"

"Students, please, do try and behave," Goodwitch reprimanded them. "We have been brought here to watch this world, not to fool around like children."

"Technically speaking, we _are_ still children," Blake whispered to Yang.

"Don't think I haven't heard you!" snapped the Professor, making her go stiff. She sighed. "Oh, whatever. If those Writers don't want you playing around, they will stop you on their own. The screen is starting up again, let's just watch."

True to her words, the screen was fizzling and changing colour from black to… brown? Then the camera view receded to show it was a very close-up view of a floor, specifically Team RWBY's dorm floor.

 **It was Friday of the first week of the break for the students of Beacon and Team RWBY was sitting around their dorm doing the usual. Yang was on her bunk on her scroll, either messaging people or just browsing the web. Blake was on her bunk reading a book, not Ninjas of Love though. That was her book with Jaune and she didn't want to read it without him. Weiss was at her desk, going over her old notes and preparing for the new semester. Ruby was on her bed and was just staring up at the ceiling. She was on her scroll, looking for the answers she desperately needed in her life but with minimal results. She was so frustrated and she was about to leave to get some air when there was a knock on the door. Ruby jumped off her bed and went to the door, she opened it to find Jaune standing there, "Hey, Rosebud." Was all he said with a smile.**

Immediately, Luna perceived the nickname as a flirt, and again smacked Jaune on the head. "Ow…"

"I wonder what Luna will do if Jaune was ever to kiss someone…" commented Blake, earning a raised eyebrow from the Grimm Butler, who began to make complicated gestures with its hands. "Err… someone knows what it's saying?"

"Probably something along the lines of 'Jaune is not allowed to kiss people outside the family'," grumbled the boy, earning a nod from his familiar. "See? Mom forbade pet names, flirting, hand holding when it's not dragging along, long hugs, kisses and whatnot. And she said that if my hands ever happened to 'wander', Luna is allowed to kidnap the target of my affection to bring them home for interrogation."

Luna nodded with a huge toothy smile on its face.

"Jeez, must be hard to be you at home," winced Sun.

"Honestly, I can get it," shrugged the boy. "I mean, they want to make sure anyone I end up with is mentally capable of surviving my family, because that's what living with me would be like."

"Torture and illegal experiments?" asked Weiss.

"When they are needed, they are needed."

 **Ruby just smiled back at him, "Hey, Jaune. What brings you here?"**

 **Jaune was scratching the back of his head, "Well, the rest of my team went down to Vale and left me here. I was getting a bit lonely and was wondering if you'd mind if I hung out with you girls for a bit?" He asked sheepishly.**

 **Ruby just smiled more, "Of course, Jaune!" She said happily as she moved to the side for him to enter, "You're always welcome!"**

 **Jaune walked inside, "Thank you, Rosebud." When he was inside, he saw the other three members of RWBY looking at him and smiling, "Hey Snow Angel, Sun Fire, Kitten." He nodded to each one of them as he said their nicknames. The girls either waved or said hello in return. Jaune heard the door close behind him and Ruby was walking past him.**

Four smacks later, Jaune sighed.

"Doesn't Luna know this is an alternative universe?" asked Ruby.

"Yes, he does, that's why he is not chasing you four right now," explained the blond Arc. "But this is an automatic reflex for him. He doesn't do that _exactly_ on purpose. When he hears my voice saying something I shouldn't, he smacks me. Back home… Well, you can imagine what happened to anyone I might be interested in."

"Psychiatric ward?" offered Nora.

"Nora!" Ren chastised her, mortified. "That's not nice!"

"Well, she's not wrong…" Jaune laughed sheepishly at the looks he got from everyone.

 **"So, what did the others have to do in Vale?" she asked curiously.**

 **"Well, Pyrrha had to meet with her manager to talk about business. Meanwhile, Ren and Nora," he shrugged before continuing, "No idea. Nora apparently dragged Ren down to Vale and he couldn't stop her. I only found out after Ren messaged me."**

 **Yang decided to ask a question, "So, why didn't you decide to help him out?"**

 **He chuckled a bit, "As much as my motion sickness is decreasing with each ride to and from Vale, I don't wanna endure that torture for now. Besides, I love those two but they need some alone time. Maybe they'll finally get together."**

 **Blake looked up from her book, "How long have they been like that?"**

 **"When Ren became tall, dark and handsome, Nora's words. And when Nora became radiant and more precious than air itself, Ren's words."**

Everyone had a laugh at seeing the two's quickly darkening cheeks. "Those two really are something, aren't they?" chuckled Qrow.

"Yes, I guess they are," smiled Ozpin, though his smile was on the verge of becoming a smirk. "The entire school had bets on when they would get together, to be honest."

"They d-did?" Ren stammered, shocked.

"Of course we did!" exclaimed Yang. "You thought we didn't? We even have bets on who would confess first!"

Ren groaned, hiding his face into his hands in embarrassment.

 **Blake and Yang giggled at that. "You know; you don't have to stand there, Jaune." Weiss decided to join into the conversation. "You could sit on my bed, if you like." She said this without looking at him so he wouldn't see the faint pink in her cheeks.**

 **Jaune looked at Weiss' bed then Ruby's hanging above it before he answered, "I appreciate it, Weiss, but I don't wanna die."**

 **He got the reaction he was hoping for. Ruby glared at him with her arms crossed, "Will you leave our beds alone!" she practically shouted at him.**

"Seriously though, if he is so worried, maybe there is a reason?" Yang mused.

"Yes, students, those beds of yours aren't exactly _solid_ ," retorted Goodwitch. "Ropes and books are not high-quality building materials. If you wanted bunk beds, you could've just asked the staff, and we would've provided you with them. You are training to become Hunters, not architects… and, forgive my bluntness, it definitely shows."

"First time I saw those beds I almost got a heart attack," confessed Qrow. "Then I remembered my girls slept on the top bunks, and I relaxed."

"Thank you," Weiss and Blake droned at the same time, but both went ignored.

 **"I am. That's why I'm staying away from them." He said completely serious and Ruby just got more annoyed, she started puffing out her cheeks. Jaune just laughed at his best friend as he ruffled her hair and she was trying to swat his hand away with little effect. Jaune decided to start tickling her and she quickly fell to the ground but he didn't stop. Ruby tried to stop Jaune but that had little results, "Say Uncle, Ruby! Say Uncle!"**

 **Through her laughing fit she was able to shout out defiantly, "Never!" She eventually couldn't find a way to stop him so she resorted to what she used to do to Yang when she did something like this. She promptly bit Jaune playfully on his shoulder. Jaune wasn't expecting this and he wasn't currently wearing his hoodie so he felt it more than he usually would. He quickly jumped away from her and shouted in shock, "Ouch! Ruby, why'd you bite me!?" She looked mildly embarrassed and jumped onto her bed to hide. Jaune was rubbing his shoulder reflexively, his aura took all of the pain but it still surprised him.**

 **"That reminds me, where's your hoodie, Jaune?" Blake asked.**

 **"It's in the wash. I usually wash it every two weeks or so." He responded.**

 **"Wow. That thing must stink then." Yang said jokingly.**

"Bleah, yeah, that must stink a lot," winced Neptune. "Two weeks? Seriously?"

"Take it from someone who has experience living with Nep, he's a housemaid," sighed Sun, shaking his head. "Really, you can't leave your underwear on the chair for three seconds and he already is harping on and on about how you should put it in its proper place. And Oum forbids if you do not change your clothes every two or three days…"

"But we always saw you in the same outfit," Blake pointed out, looking at the blue-haired boy.

"No, I have several identical outfits for when I am washing the others," the boy grumbled, sulking. "My teammates are just troglodytes sometimes. Seriously, Sun leaves his-"

"Okay okay okay no need for details!" the monkey Faunus panicked as he clamped a hand shut over his best friend's mouth.

 **Jaune just glared at her before he just shrugged and went to one of the desks to get a chair, "I don't think so. Besides, Blake never really complained about it." Blake blushed slightly at that and Yang hung upside down from her bed to try and tease her. The two started to discuss something but by this point Jaune was just looking at the two of them and not really listening.**

 **Now that he knew how he felt about them; he couldn't help but just look at them lovingly. 'They are both so amazing. I really need to figure this out. It's not fair to them to not give them an answer. But I don't wanna hurt either of them.' As he thought this, his mind went back to the conversation he had with his mother. He quickly shook his head to dismiss those thoughts. He decided that since the four of them were doing their own thing, he shouldn't disturb them. 'I could work on my aura; it's been a while.' He sat himself down in the chair cross legged and got in his meditative position. He closed his eyes and concentrated his aura to the center of his chest. He took a deep breath and as he exhaled, he spread his aura to every inch of his body and when he inhaled, he pulled it back to his center. He did this a few times and he could feel his aura very clearly, it made him feel at peace.**

"Ow!" Jaune rubbed the back of his head where Luna had hit him, this time much harder. "You're damaging my Aura, for Dust's sake!"

"Something tells me this won't be the last smack you're receive from him," Pyrrha giggled slightly. Despite having mixed feelings for the Grimm Butler, she had to admit it was both adorable and funny to see Jaune pouting at the slaps. "Besides, think of it as Aura training."

"How is this training?!"

"Kid, don't question who knows more than you do," Qrow laughed hoarsely, amused by his predicament and for once not feeling his Semblance acting up.

 **"Jaune, what are you doing?" he heard Ruby ask.**

 **Jaune just opened his eyes to see her standing directly in front of him, staring intently at him, "Nothing much, Ruby. Just working with my aura." She tilted her head to the side in confusion and he saw it as nothing but adorable. "It's a technique that Ren and I were taught. It let's someone become more in tune with their aura. It helps those who either use aura heavily in combat or their Semblance, like Ren and I."**

 **"Wow. I use my Speed a lot while using Crescent Rose. Could you teach me?" She asked.**

 **Jaune just nodded, "Sure. But let's sit on the ground. This chair isn't really comfortable for this." He stood up and sat between the bunk beds and Ruby sat across from him, trying to imitate his meditative position. "Hmmm, hold on a second." He stood up and walked behind. He placed his hand on the middle of her back and gently applied pressure, "Straighten your back just a little." He said this and Ruby did. She than felt both his hands on her shoulders and she blushed slightly, "Relax your shoulders a bit, please, Ruby." She did as she was told. Soon Jaune came back around and sat across from her again. "Okay, now close your eyes and take a few deep breaths as a start." Ruby nodded and closed her eyes. She took a few breaths and felt relax. "Now, start to flare your aura just a bit." She did this and Jaune could see her red aura surrounding her.**

 **"Okay. Now this part can be a bit difficult. You need to try concentrate your aura into the center of your chest. Right about here." He reached over to gently placed his index and middle fingers just above her breasts.**

Luna raised a hand, preparing to smack Jaune once again, who flinched and covered his head with his hands.

 **Ruby started to blush but quickly got control of her thoughts, 'Calm down. Jaune isn't doing anything perverted, he isn't like that. He's just helping me learn this technique.' She started to focus where Jaune had his fingers and she could feel her aura slowly start to travel there. After about a minute or so, her aura was where it was supposed to be.**

Luna lowered the hand, and Jaune sighed in relief, removing his hands too. "That was close." _Whack_. "Ow! Come on!"

The others laughed at his plight, while Luna returned to stare blankly at the screen.

"You should be focusing on how to imitate their meditation method," remarked Winter.

"Nah, that's too boring," Nora scoffed lightly. "Besides, we have Ren. If we want to learn we can learn through him."

"That's…" The boy sighed. "Unfortunately a good answer."

 **Jaune took his fingers and started to speak again, "Good. Now take a deep breath." She did. "Slowly exhale and as you do, slowly spread your aura out across every inch of your body." Jaune watched as she exhaled and her aura slowly surrounded her body again. "Breathe again, as you inhale pull your aura back to your center." He watched her breath in and her aura slowly retreated. "Alright, do this a few more times." He just watched as she continued the steps over and over. He noticed that she was a bit too eager though. Her aura would fully spread-out through her body before she was done exhaling. It was also condensing before she was done inhaling.**

 **Ruby exhaled one last time before she opened her eyes. She seemed happy. "How'd I do?" she asked.**

 **"You did very well, Ruby, I'm actually very impressed." She beamed at him at that. "But, you're not exactly there yet."**

 **She looked a bit disappointed. "What I do wrong?"**

"What is it with children and their mania to get everything right at their first attempt?" sighed Qrow, and silently all adults agreed. "Really, this pipsqueak here pouted on our first scythe lesson because she couldn't hit me. As if I hadn't trained for decades more than she has…"

"It is the same during Combat Class, unfortunately," agreed Goodwitch. "Most students are just too prideful to accept that they aren't perfect, and they often get angry when they are called out on their mistakes."

"Or, even more often, they get angry with their opponent when they lose, refusing to accept that there is someone with more skill than they have out there. Someone who is simply better than they are." Ozpin shook his head and sipped his coffee. "This often results in altercations outside the classrooms, personal revenges, feuds between students and sometimes bullying. I do hope you are listening, students, because we are talking about you too."

"Us?" repeated Ruby, who hadn't been paying attention. "What? Why? When? Where? Who? How? And how many cookies?"

"In order yes, your behaviour, because you need to hear this, now, here, us, normally, and I'm afraid no one until you ask some from Khor." Ozpin hid a smirk behind his mug at the girl's mortified expression. "While you aren't among those students, you too find it hard to believe Ms Goodwitch when she points out flaws in your fighting style."

"It's not my fault if she is mean to Crescent Rose!" pouted the girl.

"I am merely pointing out how your weapon seems to be too unwieldy for someone your size to use," Goodwitch sniffed imperiously. "I refuse to be accused of being _mean_ to a weapon."

 **"Nothing, Ruby." Jaune said sincerely. "Your aura is just fully spreading out before you're done exhaling and is condensing before your done inhaling. They should be in sync for you to get the full benefits of this technique." She looked very sad at that, so Jaune gently patted her head. "Rosebud, you're doing great. It takes some time before anyone can fully do it. I'm surprised on how well you did for a first go." He smiled at her.**

 **She smiled back at him, "Thank you, Jaune." She sighed afterwards, "Just wish I could feel how it should be."**

 **Jaune took his hand away and nervously rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, there is a way for me to show you but it can be a bit…intense."**

 **Ruby just stared at him until she leant forward, "Please, Jaune."**

"This isn't gonna end well," noted Jaune just before a hand smack his head. "Oh, right, I called her Rosebud."

"I think this is gonna end perfectly!" chirped Ruby, ignoring Pyrrha's, Blake's and Yang's subtle glares. "Besides, come on, I don't think this is going to show what you fear. I-I mean, Phoenix would've told us if there were to be some… intense scenes, right?"

"We have seen people being swatted around like flies, Ms Rose, if such violence is not censured, I am not sure what would be," noted Ozpin, making her go red.

"Oh, shut it, I'm sure nothing bad will happen!" exclaimed Nora.

 **He sighed before he nodded, "Alright." He held out both his hands to her. "Place your hands on mine." She looked at his hands slightly confused. But did so. "Alright, now we both have to flare our auras." They both did so; Ruby's red, Jaune's white and where their hands met was a slight pink. "Now focus your aura back to your center." Jaune focused his and Ruby did the same a second later. Jaune closed his eyes and Ruby did the same. "On the count of 3, we'll send our aura back out. 1, 2, 3." They both sent their aura's out and as their aura reached their hands they both gasped, Ruby more than Jaune.**

 **Ruby could feel Jaune's aura almost as clearly as her own. She could feel it more now because her eyes were closed. "Sorry, shoulda warned you about that. Now on three, we'll pull our auras back to our centers." Jaune counted down and the two of them repeated this process a few times. The more that this went on though, the more flustered Ruby was becoming. Their aura's were just barely separated from each other and this was the closest she had ever had her aura to anyone else's, since it was unlocked. Since aura was the extension of one's soul, in a way it was like their souls were touching. That thought was very intimate to her. 'Guess this is what he meant when he said it was intense.'**

"See?" Ozpin told her. "Nothing too intense in that sense."

"Well, technically speaking that's the most intense thing on the face of the planet," Ren pointed out. "I mean, soul contact is… well, unbelievably close. The simple fact the Swordsman offered it speaks of just how much he values Ruby's friendship, although I have mixed feelings about him not explaining more. She didn't really had an idea of what she was getting into."

"No Luna that does not mean more hits!" Jaune cried as the Grimm Butler raised both hands. A quick glance at Ren told Luna that Jaune was right, and the Grimm lowered its hands. "Oh, thank Oum he does not have a true sadistic personality like every Arc…"

"But returning to our previous topic, Ruby, that was more or less the closest you could get to a person without straight-out fusing your Aura to theirs," Ren continued, making the girl blush madly. Then, with a sigh, he added, "Though, only theoretically speaking. Many Aura meditation experts practise group meditation very often, and even unlocking someone's Aura is actually more intesne as you literally have to force your Aura into a body not your own and bring out theirs."

"So… it's fine?" asked Blake. "Not too intense?"

"That's my guess. This, of course, only stands in our universe." Ren shrugged helplessly. "For all I know, for all _we_ know, in their universe something like that might be very intense. It might even be how you seal a marriage," he added with a tiny smirk.

"Eeep!" Ruby squeaked and hid her face with her hood.

 **"Ruby? Are you okay? You seem flustered." Ruby was brought out of her thoughts when Jaune spoke to her. She opened her eyes and looked at Jaune with a half-lidded expression. Jaune was worried, Ruby seemed completely out of it and he was blaming himself. He was trying to figure out what to do, when he was pulled into a headlock from behind.**

 **"Hey, Jaune. Mind telling me what you did to my baby sister?" Yang said with a noticeable edge to her voice. Jaune was trying to respond but Yang was cutting off his oxygen. He couldn't even form words and he was trying to tell her so by tapping her on the arm repeatedly. He was about to pass out when he heard someone tackle her and freeing him from her hold. Jaune was quickly trying to reclaim his breath and looked to see who rescued him. Turns out, Ruby used her Semblance to tackle Yang and the two were now wrestling on the floor.**

 **Jaune coughed before he spoke to the other two in the room, "They do this often?" Blake and Weiss just sighed while nodding. He just shook his head and chuckled a bit.**

 **"So, what did you do to Ruby?" Blake asked him while looking over her book.**

 **He sighed, "Nothing. I was trying to let her feel what it's like when the technique is done properly by letting her aura synchronize with my own. But because of our auras being in such a close proximity, most people view it as being a very intimate process." He looked down at Ruby and Yang, who at this point had stopped wrestling and were just looking up at him. "It's the main reason why I didn't wanna do it because it can be overwhelming. It must have been a bit much for you, Ruby, and I'm sorry for not warning you more beforehand."**

"He didn't seem very reluctant to do that," noted Neptune, raising an eyebrow. "If anything, he immediately caved."

"That's true," nodded Winter. "And he should've really warned her more, as she did not know what he was going to do, nor how she was going to feel."

"Well, thankfully nothing too bad happened." Yang tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Though if something like this happens ever again, I'd better know about it beforehand."

"Yaaaaaaang!"

 **Ruby quickly got away from Yang and stood in front of Jaune. "No, it's alright, Jaune. You didn't do anything wrong." She looked away slightly, "It was just a little unexpected."**

 **"So, mind teaching the rest of us this aura technique thing, Hero?" Yang asked as she stood up from the ground.**

 **"Not at all. Just no more headlocks, Yang." Jaune said sternly to her. Jaune than started to teach the other girls of RWBY the technique with varying results. Weiss was having the complete opposite problem to Ruby, she was too reserved. She would be done exhaling before her aura would fully spread out and she would be done inhaling before her aura would completely focus back to her center. Blake was the closest of the team to have it complete, her aura was only off slightly from her breathing but she would sync them on occasions. Ruby was still practicing, she was still a bit too eager and needed to slow down a bit but was getting closer. Yang had virtually no progress at all. But, trying to get Yang to sit still and focus was a bit of a stretch. Eventually she gave up and started looking through her scroll again. That was until she got everyone's attention.**

"Somehow, that does not surprise me," snarked Weiss, glancing at a slightly blushing Yang. "You aren't exactly good at being calm."

"I am a free spirit, and I shall not be caged!" Yang shot back with equal fire, though her cheeks were pink in shame. "It's so easy to tell someone off because of their flaws, care to repeat that after you've allowed me to drag you to a dance club?!"

"Ugh, I don't know why I even bother," groaned the white-haired girl. "You're impossible."

"Ice Queen."

 **"Hey, Ruby?" Ruby and everyone else turned to Yang. She was staring at her scroll with a confused look. "Why have you been looking up information on having a crush and what to do about it?" Yang asked pointing at the scroll, which everyone now knew to be Ruby's.**

Luna slowly turned to look at Ruby, who shivered and hid behind Yang. When the Grimm and the Brawler met each other's eyes, there was a brief, but fierce standoff. Then Luna returned to look at the screen, and Yang let out a silent sigh of relief.

"Seriously, that Grimm is scary," murmured the blonde.

"Yes…" She glanced at Ruby, who seemed to have a very determined light shining in her eyes. "Scary… but not invincible."

Ignoring Yang's cry of warning, she shot off and latched onto Jaune's arm, pulling herself onto his lap. He yelped in surprise, his great wings flapping once, but her glare was directed straight at Luna. "Dismemberment," she stated loudly, confusing everyone… but her target.

Luna narrowed its eyes, and then drew a word in the dirt. _STARVATION_.

Ruby winced, and then schooled her expression when the Grimm stared at her. "Arson."

A small grin worked its way on the Grimm's face, and everyone waited with bated breath. _DROWNING_.

Ruby scoffed. "That's tame," she feigned a laugh, getting Luna to glare at her. "Decay Dust injection." Seeing its eyes widen, she continued, "Exposure to a thousand small Grimm. Covered in salt and fed to the goats. Dehydration. Hypothermia. Hyperthermia."

The Grimm gritted its fangs at the onslaught of possible ways of death. _LIVE FLAYING_. _LIVE BURIAL_. _ENCOUNTER WITH THE ARC FAMILY AFTER YOU'VE PISSED THEM OFF_. _BEING JAUNE'S LOVER_.

Ruby swallowed dryly at that, and even Jaune held his breath. "A-Acid bath," she countered, stammering slightly. Then, in a whisper, she added, "Jaune, help. I'm out of horrifying ways to die."

"Try 'meeting Kara'," he suggested softly, rubbing her back, hidden from Luna's sight. "You're doing great."

Ruby nodded slightly and turned to look at the Grimm. "Meeting K-Kara."

With a screech, Luna leapt away from the two of them, its eyes darting around. "Yang, quick, come here!" exclaimed Ruby, and the blonde hurried to take her spot beside the two. Then Ruby turned to the monster and blew it a raspberry.

 **Ruby's eyes went wide and she quickly ran over to Yang to get her scroll. But Yang was keeping it just out of her grasp. "Yang! Give me back my scroll!" She shouted in anger.**

 **"Not until you tell me who you're crushing on." Yang said determinedly. She now had it over her head to stop Ruby from grabbing it.**

 **Ruby quickly jumped onto her sister's back to try and reach it. "That's not your business! Now give it!" Ruby replied angrily.**

 **Yang quickly held it out at arm's length to stop her. "Not til you tell me." She said getting slightly annoyed.**

 **Jaune sighed and stood up, "Come on you two, knock it off." Jaune said trying to defuse the situation.**

 **"Jaune, go long!" Yang shouted before she threw the scroll at him. Jaune caught it so it wouldn't fall to the ground and break. Next thing he knew, he got knocked to the ground and the back of his head hit the ground. His head was spinning slightly but soon felt something on his lips. He openned his eyes to see Ruby on top of him and the two were kissing.**

"Whoa, wait a second, how did that happen?" exclaimed Neptune, confused. "Ruby is a foot shorter than Jaune, how could they fall and accidentally kiss!?"

"Awwwww, shut it Nep, you're such a party pooper just enjoy the FLUFF!" Sun shouted happily, munching on some popcorns he had taken from… somewhere.

"At this point I'm not even surprised," sighed Weiss.

"Ditto," added Blake.

"Let's just get this over with," groaned Qrow, not looking at the screen. "It'll be easier to avoid killing the bastard… dammit, Tai all over again…"

 **Ruby's eyes were wide and she quickly pulled back. She sat up on top of him and was just in shock. "I…I'm…. I'm…" she was saying over and over before her eyes started to water. She quickly grabbed her scroll and used her Semblance to get out of the room.**

 **Jaune quickly stood up, "Ruby, wait!" He looked around the room to see the other three staring wide eyed at Jaune. "I know you didn't mean to, Yang, but you took that too far."**

 **Yang looked down slightly, "I know. But I didn't think she'd go that overboard to some teasing." She sighed. "But, this is probably the first time she's ever had a crush so I shouldn't be surprised."**

"That doesn't mean you can just steal her Scroll and humiliate her like that," remarked Winter. "You should be more considerate, Ms Xiao Long. For as long as I've been here, you've demonstrated incredible rashness and carelessness."

"Yeah, yeah, fuck you too," grumbled Yang.

"Yang! Language!" Yang sighed as she handed Ruby a Lien. "For the swear jar. Really, I could buy all the weapon upgrades I wanted if I were to use the swear jar money… between you, Dad and Uncle Qrow…"

"It's an adult thing, you just swear more," shrugged the drunk Hunter.

"Only irresponsible adults," countered Winter.

"Can we _please_ go back to the screen?" Sun pleaded them. "This is like… another focal point of the romance! Can't we watch it without going off on a tangent? Please?"

"Ugh, this romance idiocy again," scoffed Cinder before Sun appeared beside her. "What the-"

"No! Did you already forgot everything I taught you!? Huh!? Fluff is good for you dammit!" Ignoring her protests, and the suspicious smell of burning, Sun dragged her in the middle of the balcony. "Here! Now you'll have a better view! And learn, because at the end of the viewing, there'll be a quiz on how this romance is developing!"

"And if I fail?" Cinder asked, disinterested.

"I don't know, but I'll think of something!"

 **"I'll go check on her." Jaune said. He left the dorm and used his scroll to find Ruby's GPS. He eventually found her sitting on the fountain in the courtyard. She had her knees drawn up to her chest and had her head down. He sat down next to her but she didn't show any indication that he was there. "Ruby, are you okay?"**

 **Ruby just shook her head with it still down. "I'm so embarrassed. Why would Yang do that?" She said sadly.**

 **"She was just teasing, Ruby. She just didn't realize that you'd actually get hurt over it." Jaune said.**

 **"Still, just because she sucks at the aura technique doesn't mean she had to ruin it for everyone." She said heatedly.**

"How incredibly like your uncle that someone younger than you has more common sense than you have," snorted Winter.

"Specialist, I believe you are projecting your dislike for Qrow onto Ms Xiao Long, so I must ask you to stop immediately," Ironwood spoke up, his voice stern and commanding. Winter sat up straighter. "Just because they are related does not mean she is like Qrow. If anything, after what happened to Mr Arc a few viewings back, she will be way more careful of what she does."

Being reminded of the accident had Yang look down in shame. "Y-Yeah…"

"Those two…" sighed Goodwitch, referring to Winter and Ironwood. "Directly or indirectly, they have no idea of how to deal with children." Seeing Qrow's smug look, she glared at him. "Don't you dare make one of your stupid jokes, Qrow."

"Why, because you know how to handle children?" Next thing they knew, Qrow had been sent flying by a telekinetic blast, his scream fading in the distance before a bout of orange flames dropped him back on the balcony. "Holy shit, Glynda, that was uncalled for!"

Without deigning him with a reply, Goodwitch returned to look at the screen.

 **"Ruby, are you embarrassed by what Yang did or the fact that we kissed each other accidentally in front of your team?" Jaune asked.**

 **Ruby was quiet for a bit. "Both. But the kiss was definitely more embarrassing." She said bashfully.**

 **Jaune gently patted her head and she finally looked over at him. "I'm sorry, Ruby. Both me and Yang are. Do you think you can forgive us?"**

 **She looked out across the courtyard before she spoke again. "Maybe. But I want a batch of your cookies. With double the chocolate." She looked at him with a small smile.**

 **Jaune chuckled, "You got it. And Yang?"**

 **"I'll find a way to get even." She said with a slightly evil smile. The two laughed before Jaune stood up and offered his hand to her. She accepted it and he helped her off the fountain. The two then made their way back to the dorms.**

"Isn't that ominous…" drawled Weiss. "I'm not sure Ruby would ever be able to do something too 'evil'. After all, this is Ruby we're talking about."

"Hey!"

"Believe me, Weiss, Ruby can be very mean when she wants to," smirked Yang, ruffling her sister's hair. "She also ends up being adorable, but that's part of the deal. She's always adorable."

"Hey!"

"Well, Gemshine, they are right," smiled Jaune, dodging Luna's oncoming slap. He leaned in to give her a quick peck on the lips, and then turned to Yang. "Oh, also, I found a nickname for you, Yang."

"Oh, really?" Yang smiled brightly. "What is it?"

"Corona." At her confused look, he laughed. "It means glow, but in one of the ancient languages it also means crown. And the crown is the outer part of a star, which is a huge mass of fire."

"Corona… well, I like it!" exclaimed the girl, swatting Luna's slap out of the way before briefly kissing her boyfriend.

"Technically, stars are huge masses of incandescent gases," Weiss pointed out with a smirk. "So we could say that by comparing you to a star, Jaune is trying to tell you that you're full of hot air."

Yang looked aghast at the joke, but her friends all laughed. Weiss's smirk just grew in size. "Take that, 'pun queen'."

"I will get back at you!"

 **"Um, Ruby? Would you mind answering something?" Jaune asked nervously.**

 **"Sure. What's up?"**

 **"Was that your first kiss?" he asked. She blushed and looked down before nodding. Jaune groaned, "Oh man, now I feel worse. I'm so sorry, Ruby. I wish I could make it up to you."**

 **Ruby stopped walking and Jaune stopped to look at her. She still had her head down and she was messing with the end of her skirt. "I might have an idea." She said very nervously.**

 **"What is it?" Jaune asked curious.**

 **"Well, um, could we…. could we…" She said bashfully before she took a deep breath. She looked up and made eye contact with him. "Could we redo it?" She asked while blushing as red as her cloak.**

"See? I told you! This is a focal point for the romance!" exclaimed Sun, shaking Cinder so much her eyes became swirls. "No! Wake up, you must not miss this!"

"Come on, man, just enjoy your fluff and leave that poor girl alone," sighed Neptune. "Really, people say I pester girls with flirting, how it is no one tells _you_ to stop?"

"Because I am in the right!" Sun shot back. "But now shhhh, they're about to proclaim their undying love to each other!"

 **Jaune was shocked by this, "You wanna redo it?" She nodded at him without breaking eye contact. Jaune started to scratch the back of his head nervously, "I guess so but are you sure, Ruby?"**

 **She nodded before she replied slightly nervous, "Yes. You've been so great to me, Jaune, so I don't mind you having my first kiss."**

 **Jaune just looked at his best friend and made his decision, "Okay, if this is what you want." She nodded and he slowly walked over to her. When there was very little space between them he gently placed one of his hands on her shoulder. He could feel her shaking slightly from being nervous. He gently placed his other hand on her cheek and she looked up at him. She looked into his eyes and he just raised an eyebrow, asking her if she was ready. Ruby took a deep breath and leant into his hand before she nodded. Jaune gently raised her head a bit and gently kissed her. Ruby's eyes went wide before she closed them and leant into the kiss. She couldn't believe how amazing the kiss felt and quickly thought she might get addicted.**

 **After a few seconds, they broke the kiss and Jaune just looked at Ruby. "Was that better?" he asked her. Ruby just nodded and hugged him tightly. Jaune hugged her back and after a minute or so, they made their way back to the dorms. He had some cookies to bake and Ruby had the most content smile on her face. There was also an unspoken pact between the two. Do not tell Yang.**

Yang blinked before remembering that in that particular universe, she had a very different way of being protective of Ruby. "Oh, hell yeah, that's gonna be good."

"Seeing your boyfriend being murdered is gonna be good?" Blake deadpanned at her, unaware of the two shadows stealthily crawling behind her.

"Of course not! It's just that I'm sure more shenanigans are going to happen because of this, and those are always funny to watch." Yang eyed the two shadows. "Also, Blake, you might want to turn around."

Blake sighed. "Yang, do you really think that cliché is going to work on me? I've read far too many books to fall for that."

"The new cliché is me warning you and you not turning, you know that, right?" Blake sighed and turned, freezing on the spot. "Told you so."

"Meow!" With a mewl, one she'd later be very embarrassed about, Blake darted out of the way as Helios and Zwei both pounced on her. Hissing at the two dogs, the poor girl began running around the balcony, chased by the monsters while everyone else laughed themselves hoarse.

"Tell them to stop!" the once-stoic Huntress shouted at them, but everyone was too busy laughing to listen to her.

Finally, tired of running, Blake darted up to Jaune, pulled him on his feet so that Ruby was clinging to his front, and then climbed up on his head, hissing at the two dogs. Jaune staggered and fumbled as the girl kept shifting, while Ruby was content with letting go and watch the scene. The two dogs barked up at her from their spot at Jaune's feet, but otherwise made no move to reach the woman.

"Blake! Get down, please!"

"No!" hissed the cat named Blake that still stood on his head, and with heels. "You're the tallest among my friends! Fly! Get me away from those two!"

With a little bit of an effort, Jaune yanked her down from his head and flapped his wings, accidentally sending the two dogs sprawling. After he took off, he looked down at the girls in his arms, finding her glaring victoriously at the two animals. "Blake, calm down, they're just Helios and Zwei."

"Two hellhounds."

"No, Phoenix's and Ruby's dogs, respectively," deadpanned the boy.

"No matter, they are hellhounds and from now on, you're tasked to protect me from those." Blake blew them a raspberry. "Your maiden demands this."

Silence reigned for a second. Then Yang…

"Wait a damn second, _his_ maiden?!"

 ** _Oooh, foreshadowing. ^^_**

 ** _Also, apparently Luna is defeatable. Go Ruby, learn how to spend some time with your future family!_**

 ** _And Blake. Oh, Blake, you just asked for that. It was too fun not to write it._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	31. Chapter 30

**_Ugh, okay, here I am. I know it's been a month since my last ViewingTES update and I'm sorry, but... well, Life got involved. Before this I updated Extension, Redemption, DarkerShade, Rose, ToB, a commission, and ToB again. This means I more or less updated a chapter every 4 days, averagely. I know it's not as good as other authors, heck it's not even good by the standards I had a while ago, but what can I do about it? I'm only a mortal._**

 ** _Good news, today I finished the third translation work I had. Tomorrow I'll proofread it before sending it off to my editor, who will of course start nagging for me to take another translation soon, but for a week or so I should be good._**

 ** _Bad news... well, this is still kinda distant, but in case I need another month before updating this story again, I'll let you know that I will be absent for the first week of April. This is not an April's Fool, though. I'm gonna visit my sister and I'm not bringing my computer along for the trip. Well, a guy can't stay locked in his room forever, no matter how much he wishes for that to be the case. I'm just giving you a heads-up. A week, ten or twelve days at most, of absence. Gods, my email inbox is gonna explode. Just in case you wonder in the future._**

 ** _And with that out of the way, onto the chapter proper._**

Helios and Zwei, their evil deed completed, sat and watched the free entertainment they were offered as Jaune -with Blake persistently clinging to him, much to Ruby's chagrin and Yang's irritation- finally landed. Helios was sprawled on Sun's lap, while Cinder was forced by the monkey Faunus to endure Zwei sitting on her legs. As soon as Yang forcefully detached the brunette from her fellow blond to drag her off, Ruby immediately reclaimed her rightfully earned spot on Jaune's lap, dragging him down to sit – not that she minded having him stand up and keep her in his arms, of course, it was just so they could watch the screen more comfortably.

Yang, however, had other plans, and it was common knowledge how the screen wouldn't start until everyone was done doing their own thing – unless a Writer decided to be an ass, of course, but Writers were too unpredictable to foresee. The blonde brawler wrestled her partner further away from the two, almost out of the rocky balcony that had been prepared for them, before turning to face her. "So, Blake, what's that about being _his maiden?!_ " she asked, not even bothering to keep the pissed-off-ness out of her voice.

Blake's own eyes narrowed. "I think the answer is clear."

"Look, I'll be quite frank and I expect the same," continued Yang. "Do you love Jaune? Or at least, do you like him in a romantic way?"

The brunette shrugged lightly. "You'd think that would be a given after what I said, but if you insist yes, I do like Jaune."

"Him or the Swordsman?" Before Blake could open her mouth to protest, Yang clamped a hand over it. "Yes, you're outraged, I know, but it's important. I had to ask myself the same question, you know? Only after he… after he forgave me for having almost killed him, after he _thanked_ me for that, I decided I loved him and not the Swordsman. But what about you? Is it the guilt for having once been part of the White Fang? Is it because of the Swordsman? Is it-"

 _Slap_.

The noisy sound of flesh meeting flesh silenced all other sounds in the outcropping, and Yang knew she had brought it too far as Blake's eyes swelled with anger and tears. "How can you say something so cruel!? Do you think I am some sort of idiot who gains feelings for someone out of guilt, or because she can't tell a blond from another?!"

Sun, bless his soul, actually looked a bit hopeful at that.

"Whoa! No, I just wanted to know. Because, like, you have barely shown you like Jaune in these last viewings, so I was just surprised!" Yang defended herself, cradling her cheek more out of shock than out of real pain. "I didn't mean to offend you-"

"Well you managed to!" retorted Blake, fuming. "Just because I was subtler than 'plastering myself against him so snugly and so often you'd think I'm in heat or something', it doesn't mean I have not started to like him!"

"I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think that through!" replied the blonde.

"That much is clear!"

"Ms Belladonna, Ms Xiao Long, calm down," Goodwitch's voice cut through their argument like Crescent Rose through a Grimm. "Please, retain a civil behaviour."

Blake grunted an affirmative before looking back at Yang. "To answer your initial and _tactless_ question no, it is not because of those things, but because of him and him alone. That's enough for you?"

"Well, normally I would ask for reasons, but I guess I've already overstepped my boundaries enough…" mumbled Yang, looking away.

"Yes, yes you have," growled the cat Faunus before sighing and deflating as she turned to Jaune. "Well…"

"I guess the cat's out of the bag," Nora commented cheerfully. When Blake glowered at her, she just grinned wider. "What? What are you so moody about? You just got a boyfriend!"

"He still hasn't said anything, technically," Weiss pointed out.

Everyone looked at Jaune expectantly, and he sighed dejectedly. "Listen, I… I'm flattered, but… give me time. Before all this we barely talked with each other, and while that might've been the reason why you haven't developed feelings for me earlier, it still makes it awkward to get confessed to by a girl I barely spoke with before all this viewing thing." At seeing her cat ears flatten against her head, he hurried to go on. "This is not a refusal, mind me! I think highly of you, you're beautiful and intelligent and you have a touch of mystery to your person, it's just that… I'd kinda like to get to know you a little better before engaging in anything. You know, favourite colour and food, shared hobbies and interests… that kind of thing."

Blake could understand, she really could and actually agreed with him when he said it was too sudden, but that didn't stop the small tinge of sadness from entering her chest. Still, she nodded in acceptance. "I get it. What about… what about a date after the viewing? So we can talk and… get to know each other?"

"Sure, though you'll have to settle-"

"I swear Jaune if you say she'll have to settle for you I'm gonna rip your self-esteem out of you and burn it!" The frustrated yell came, surprisingly, from Ren.

"-for a date in the fortress. _That's_ what I was gonna say, Ren, give me some credit, it's not like I hate myself," Jaune finished with a raised eyebrow to his best male friend.

"It's fine, I'm not fond of grand restaurants and such," Blake smiled her signature small and mysterious smile.

"Hey, if she gets a date, I want one too!" pouted Ruby before Jaune chuckled and grazed her lips with his own.

"My date with Blake is just to get to know each other before engaging in something we might not be ready for. Is this enough for you?" he smiled gently at her. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up to find Yang staring straight at him. He chuckled again, this time louder, and kissed her too. "Jeez, you're both so jealous…"

"And you're getting bolder, Lover Knight," teased Yang. "Not too long ago you were an awkward lovable idiot around ladies, how comes now you're so smooth?"

"Must be something you infected him with," snorted Weiss.

"Aww, thanks Weiss but you're not my type," Yang blew her a kiss and dodged a thrown pillow. "No, seriously, what changed?"

Jaune laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, my dad always told me what all women look for in a man is confidence. I guess I'm just finally realizing what he actually meant? Also, having you guys around helped too, you're all very cool to hang out with."

"Speaking of coolness, I think the screen is about to start up again," Neptune noted as he pointed at the TV. "Wouldn't want to miss the aftermath of Ruby and the Swordsman kissing, right?"

"Yeah, but maybe some help here would be appreciated…" Pyrrha called out as she and Nora restrained Luna from trying to attack Blake. The two girls yelped when the Grimm Butler exploded in flames and stepped back, but once the fire subsided, there was only a note. Pyrrha picked it up and read it aloud. " _'Dear Watchers, I removed Luna from the group, yes. The world he comes from is not one I am documenting, and as such I entirely blame Khor for not telling me he would basically try to murder all of Jaune's girls. Anyway, I sent him back to his world. You girls can stay with Jaune without problems. Signed, Phoenix. PS: Blake, during your date please, for my sake, don't start discussing about Ninjas of Love. Thank you.'_ And that's it."

"Well, I guess we should thank Phoenix," replied Weiss. "Now everyone take a seat, it's about to commence."

 **It was now Saturday and Jaune found himself in the complete opposite situation than the day before. He was now hanging out with his team while all of RWBY had to go to Vale for some reason. He didn't bother to ask them because he had a feeling they wouldn't tell him anyways and it was none of his business to begin with.**

"Wasn't this when you all stuffed your heads full of having to stop the White Fang and Torchwick at any cost?" Neptune asked bluntly. When everyone staring at him, he just threw his leader under the proverbial bus. "What? Sun tells me _everything_ , you know? Besides, you would've dragged me along to that pub without telling me, hadn't he told me already, so that's entirely your fault for trying to keep it a secret!"

Blake glared at Sun, who began to sweat. "I… well… I slipped and told him, okay? I'm not good at keeping secrets… unless it's about stolen food, of course."

 **Team JNPR were outside just enjoying their day together. Nora was talking a mile a minute while the other three just listened to her. Jaune realized though that Pyrrha was looking over at him a lot during this time but every time he looked at her she would blush before looking away. He was wondering what was going on but he realized that something was off. They usually sat next to each other, being partners and all, but today they were closer than usual. Barely a few inches were separating them and Jaune looked down and he saw that he had his hand on top of her's, how did that happen?**

Sun opened his mouth to cry out, offended by such a cliché, but instead he found himself closing it without a sound as Pyrrha's glare bored a large hole into him. Cinder sent the redhead an impressed nod, and that was saying everything.

"Aw, look at them, they're so sweet!" cooed Nora, making Jaune and Pyrrha blush.

 **His first instinct was to take his hand away but he didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to it. Besides, he really didn't mind. Pyrrha's hand was warm and incredibly comforting. She always had a way to make Jaune just feel comfortable and safe. Made sense, she is an amazing fighter and a champion. But, he knew she was so much more than that. Having not known anything about her before initiation made it so he could get to know Pyrrha Nikos the person, not the champion.**

"What's with this sudden and unexplained tangent on what he thinks of the girl?" grumbled Cinder. "Can't we hurry up already?"

"Oh, why are you so grumpy?" huffed Weiss, frowning in displeasure at her. "I mean, you're stuck here no matter what. I don't know why you are in such a hurry to go back, but it won't happen, so why don't you just accept it and move on? You might even find out you enjoy this viewings."

Cinder was slightly taken aback by her words. It was indeed true she was in a hurry, she had her plans to consider after all, and it was true her words to Phoenix had been completely empty. She had tried, she could not exit that place. Or at least, she couldn't do so without exposing herself to Ozpin and the others.

Maybe the Schnee was right? She _was_ getting quite bored. Maybe looking at her permanence there not as a bother to get rid of, but as a learning experience and possible entertainment, was the right way to look at it? Cinder frowned. It surely seemed to be. Deciding to keep the girl's advice in mind, she returned to look at the screen. Romance-y stuff was not of her liking, but maybe things would get more interesting quickly.

 **"Jaune?" he was brought out of his thoughts by Pyrrha talking. He shook his head slightly before he looked back at her and he noticed she had a slight blush.**

 **"Sorry, Pyr. I was deep in thought. What's up?"**

 **She looked away bashfully, "You've been staring at me for a while now and, well, there's that." She said as she looked down at their hands together. He blushed slightly and looked up to apologize for it but stopped. He looked into her emerald eyes and saw something in them, some emotion. Something he's seen before but never really gave much thought to. He just kept looking at her and just took in her beauty. She was breath taking and he couldn't look away.**

 **She just looked at him and didn't know what to do, she's seen that look before from many people but not from Jaune. But it was different, purer. He wasn't looking at her like many people in their age group, full of hormones and indecency. But just admiration. He'd never looked at her like this before and it made her chest feel warm. Neither knew what would happen next, but luckily or unluckily, they didn't have the chance to figure it out.**

Sun opened his mouth to speak, and found his own nunchaku rifles jamming themselves into his mouth, surrounded by a black glow, effectively shutting him up. Honestly he could even understand Pyrrha's motivation, after all he had allowed the others to have their moment with the Swordsman and he seemed to complain more often when Pyrrha was with him on the screen, but it wasn't his fault his mouth ran without him ordering it to speak. Really!

Yang and Ruby felt a small, tiny, miniscule pang of jealous. So microscopic, actually, that they were sure they didn't even wince. And Jaune's yelps of pain as they tightened their grip on him were absolutely lies.

Blake smirked slightly at the two sisters' predicament. Having grown up together and basically sharing everything, the cat Faunus wasn't surprised to know they were kind of okay with sharing a boyfriend. That couldn't be said for any other possible girlfriend, though. She sighed. Poly relationships were often ruined because one or more partners thought to be receiving less attention than the others. She just hoped everything would be okay in the end.

She didn't try to lie to herself, even she got a tiny bit jealous, but she was sure it was natural.

Ozpin… he just sipped his coffee.

There was a reason why he loved having students. All the teenage drama they caused was just hilarious.

 **"So, you guys gonna kiss or what?" Nora said teasingly.**

 **The two blushed before they looked away. "Nora!" Jaune said annoyed, whether it was from Nora's teasings or her interrupting their moment was anyone's guess.**

 **"What? I was talking to you guys and you were ignoring me. It was either that or I was gonna hit you with Magnhild." She said cheerfully.**

"Thank Dust she didn't think of using her weapon," Winter sighed in relief.

"Meh, I don't think it would've changed much," shrugged Neptune. "I mean, I'm not even sure she could actually hurt the Swordsman, he's way too strong for her."

"A Magnhild to the legs always does the job!" Nora protested loudly, pouting when no one heeded her words. She sank back down into her pillow with a pout, and Ren gently patted her head in a comforting manner.

 **Jaune just sighed, "What were you trying to say to us?"**

 **"I was wondering if we could go sparring? I'm kinda bored and wanna do something exciting."**

 **Jaune thought for a second, "Sure. Why not?" Nora jumped up and started cheering. This just made Jaune smile before he stood up and offered his hand to his partner. She took it and they all made their way to the sparring rooms. They decided to spar with their partners to start off. They set up the matches so that they would end when either person's aura would reach fifty percent. That way they wouldn't be too exhausted. Jaune and Pyrrha had a slightly heated match, Jaune made good on his promise and didn't use his Semblance for this match. This allowed him to use all of his full capabilities with a sword against her. Although, Pyrrha wasn't going to make it easy on him. Halfway through their match she started to use her Semblance. Jaune jumped back to create some distance and looked at her with an eyebrow raised, "Really?"**

 **She gave him a small smile, "You never said I couldn't use my Semblance. Besides, this will make it more of a challenge for you."**

"If you think about it, Pyrrha's Semblance is really overkill," noted Sun, having freed his mouth of his nunchakus. "I mean, metal manipulation, really? Going against you with a weapon is suicide as it is, but if you also use it to manipulate all the metal in the area… well, that's probably murder or something."

"I am also surprised as it seems to break the usual rule of relation between a Semblance and its owner's personality," remarked Winter. "I don't see how that could be related to Ms Nikos."

"I do," Jaune whispered to Yang. He would've liked to tell everyone, but he didn't want to offend Pyrrha in case that was a touchy subject for her. "She has control over magnetism, the force field that attracts metals. I guess it was born from her desire to attract friends."

Yang blinked as she considered his theory. It made sense, in the far-fetched way so commonly found in Remnant, but most of all… "That's just so depressing…" she noted with a side glance at the champion.

"Well… she did want friends really badly," Jaune offered weakly.

 **Jaune just sighed, "Fine. I'm not one to back away from a challenge!" he said with a grin before charging at his partner. The match was getting exciting, Pyrrha had the advantage for a while but Jaune was still able to score a few decisive hits on her when he'd grab another sword before she realized it and could effect it with her Polarity. But eventually Jaune's aura reached the fifty percent mark and the match went to Pyrrha. Jaune was doubled over breathing raggedly, "Well, I have to say, I got you a few times there even with you using your Semblance." He smiled at her and she returned it.**

 **"You did very well, Jaune. I was shocked by the hits you managed to get me with. Not many people can say that." She said cheerfully.**

"I'm wondering, does that mean Arc is more powerful than Nikos?" asked Cinder. She was wondering, of course, if she had unknowingly forgotten to check the students thoroughly. All of RWBY and three members of JNPR were on her high-danger list, but Jaune Arc had always struck her as just a clumsy idiot who couldn't fight to save his life. He was not at the bottom of her list, but it didn't make it into the first fifty or sixty..

"In that universe, most probably yes. In ours, Arc is a far-below-sub-par fighter, while Nikos is among the best I've ever seen, almost on par with a graduated Hunter," replied Ironwood, making Jaune's friends glare at him. Even Jaune frowned at the General, throwing a little of confidence in the pit of self-esteem he'd dug himself in. He knew he was bad, but not _that_ bad, and he was improving. "The difference is incredibly jarring."

"Jimmy, could the kid a little bit of slack, come on," Qrow drawled sarcastically. "He's my student now, I can't let you just badmouth him like that. Also, I'm saving your ass from my nieces' wrath."

"I am not badmouthing him, Qrow. Compared to a civilian, Mr Arc's combat skills are amazing, absurdly so even. But that's compared to a civilian. He might defeat a third year student of a Combat School, but no more. He is far below Beacon's acceptation standards." Ironwood paused to allow that to sink in better. "I am not badmouthing him. Antagonizing a boy less than half my age like that would be just plain embarrassing and below me. I do not deny Mr Arc could hold his own against a few Grimm, his cunning and his fighting style, mostly defensive, are perfect for that. However, if you take Ms Schnee, or Ms Belladonna, or Mr Lie as standard then I fear that yes, Mr Arc is far below standard."

Qrow had to admit, the General actually had a point. "Ugh, I hate when you're right."

"Oh, so that's why you hate me every time we argue."

 **"Yeah. Most people see you as untouchable." They were standing close to each other and he gently took her hand, "So, are you untouchable or just not to me?" She blushed slightly and Jaune did as well when he realized how what he said had sounded like.**

"That's just so corny," snickered Yang, elbowing her maybe-in-the-future, possibly-soon, boyfriend-to-be. "I mean, seriously?"

"Oh come on, you all know I'm terrible at flirting!" Jaune defended himself with an argument that honestly just dug him deeper into the hole.

"Yang is right, that was quite funny," smirked Blake. "Your counterpart really laid it a little too thick there."

"Especially since we know he got lost in thinking of how amazing and all Pyrrha is, earlier!" exclaimed Nora, grinning like a madwoman on the brink of making two people blush. Which she actually was. "If you don't consider just how dense Jaune is, you'd think the Swordsman is going full-throttle on courting Pyrrha!"

"H-Hey l-let's not g-get ahead of o-ourselves!" Jaune stammered, flustered. Pyrrha too blushed, but her silence was more telling than any word.

 **They were both brought out of that when they heard someone clapping. They turned to see a guy about their age walking towards them. He was pretty muscular and tall, Jaune was still taller by a couple of inches. He wore a blue and black, sleeveless gi from the waist up and black pants from the waist down. He wore boots and bracers around both his forearms and similar guards around his shins. He was tanned with black, spiky hair and red eyes. He stopped a few feet away and spoke, "I have to say, that was an impressive fight. But, what do you expect from the great Pyrrha Nikos?" He said with a smile.**

 **Jaune did not like the way he was looking at Pyrrha, at all. Pyrrha seemed the same but soon put on her usual mask. "Thank you but I had my difficulties. Jaune is a tough opponent." Jaune smiled at her compliment.**

 **"Maybe so but when it comes to you, victory is always guaranteed."**

"He's not exactly wrong, you could just have someone's weapons fight against them," Sun pointed out.

"And that is only if you can't manipulate the iron in the blood, if you can you could literally kill a person with a single, simple use of your Semblance. A simple pull at the heart, and they'd drop dead in a sec," added Neptune, nodding at Pyrrha. "Way to make a guy envious, by the way. Half the world fangirls about you and the other half hates your very guts."

Pyrrha slumped in her couch and sighed. "Yes, that is why I try to keep my Semblance use to a minimum. Only to make slight adjustments or to prevent a weapon from flying out of my hands. People would get angry if they were to think I can manipulate blood. Angry and scared."

"Do not forget that Semblances can rarely bypass Aura unless they are specifically targeting the owner of said Aura," noted Ozpin, swirling the coffee in his mug. "Otherwise Glynda's Telekinesis could just rip organs off the bodies of her opponents. Had she been able to, I'm pretty sure there would be many more mutilated students in Beacon".

 **Something was off about this guy so Jaune stepped forward slightly. "Not to be rude but who are you?"**

 **He looked at Jaune for a second before his eyes returned to Pyrrha, "My apologies." He made a bow before he spoke again, "My name is Kuro, I'm here from Haven academy for the Vytal festival. And your eventual boyfriend." He raised his head with a smile.**

 **Both of them were taken back by that. "Excuse me?" Pyrrha said stunned.**

"What the hell?" asked Nora, confused. "Did I hear that right?"

"That's pretty bold and blunt even for me," commented Yang, surprised by the boy's straightforwardness. It wasn't even her style of teasing or flirting. She preferred to hint at it in a very obvious but subtle way, the oxymoron not stopping its effectiveness, so seeing someone being so direct was a new even for her. Heck, even the boys who asked her out just for her body weren't that bold, they at least _tried_ to offer some flimsy excuse while they leered at her.

"I'll be honest, even I have rarely heard such statements," Goodwitch threw in her own two cents, with Winter nodding in agreement, both women being quite stunning and as such quite desired from many students or soldiers, depending on the case. And while both had encountered behaviours not unlike Kuro's, they had been rare occasions, and definitely not from people who had just met them, but rather ones who had known them for a short while.

The ones who had known them for a long while knew they ought to keep their distance from the two stern women.

 **"Similar to you, I have never lost a fight. Some have started to call me the God of Victory and a God needs his Goddess." He started to walk towards her. "We are perfect for each other, Pyrrha. No one will ever understand us, the solitary we share. We'll only be happy with each other. And with our skills and powers, we will be unstoppable. So, what do you say, beloved?" He was reaching out to her but was stopped when Jaune grabbed his arm and pushed him back.**

"Jeez, this guy's a creep," Yang spat with venom. She didn't particularly hate the boy, heck he could've even been a decent person for all she knew, but sometimes hormones could really ruin a person. That was one of the reasons why she usually viewed possible relationship like someone viewed items during window shopping: maybe with interest, but never really committed to get any. She had learned how to keep her hormones on a very tight leash.

"Let's hope he's just going to walk away after a small shouting match," huffed Cinder. "I would greatly prefer to see another spar between Arc and Nikos."

"You could just call them by name, you know?" Sun reminded her with a nudge.

She glared at him. "I will call them however I wish, monkey boy. I refuse to just call them by their first name as if we were friends."

"I can just feel the love here," Yang murmured sarcastically, causing both Jaune and Ruby to giggle and cover their mouths to stifle their laughters.

 **He quickly stepped in front of Pyrrha, "I think you've over stayed your welcome." He said with an unmistakable edge to his voice. Everything this guy said angered Jaune. He was talking to Pyrrha like she was an item or prize, he didn't even care about her opinion and that was not okay with him, at all.**

 **Kuro just looked Jaune up and down, "I suggest you move. I have matters to discuss things with my beloved."**

 **"She doesn't want anything to do with you. So, I suggest you leave." His aura started to flare slightly. "Unless you wanna lose that victory streak of yours."**

 **Kuro started to chuckle slightly, "You're no match for me. What makes you think you can win?"**

 **"I've dealt with worse than you. So, either stay in this ring and fight or walk away."**

"That is not a wise idea," commented Ren, pursuing his lips as he stared at the screen.

"What? What are you saying, Ren? That he should just allow him to talk about Pyrrha like that?" exclaimed Ruby, shocked to hear her friend-by-Jaune say the Swordsman should back off. "Why shouldn't the Swordsman spar with him? It's not like it's a battle to the death!"

"No, but the Swordsman is at fifty percent mark for his Aura while this 'Kuro' is at full Aura, and is still perfectly fresh," explained Ren. "We also don't know how good Kuro is, so challenging him is a risk. And finally, despite how despicable his speech is making him look, I doubt he gained that title and arrogance without being very good at fighting. He might really be as strong as Pyrrha, to be honest. If we also add in the unknown variable of his Semblance, we get that the Swordsman clearly isn't thinking this fight through."

"I agree with Mr Lie. Combat prowess isn't everything on a battlefield, as our own Mr Arc proved during your last team spar by what I've been told. Strategy is something to take in consideration but most of all it's cunning and estimation. There is a reason why unknown risks are always tagged with the second-highest danger mark in Atlas. You can't prepare for what you don't know, and if you aren't prepared, the fight is going to be ten times harder," Ironwood stepped in to support Ren's explanation. "But I am not only talking about estimating your enemies. Knowing your own power and limits is necessary as well. Unfortunately, all of you think yourselves invincible aside from Mr Arc, and even then only because he _under_ estimates himself instead of _over_ estimate. It is incredibly difficult to avoid falling into modesty or arrogance. The Swordsman, I'm afraid, just fell into the latter. He is facing an unknown opponent with a very probably high danger mark, while being at half his Aura level. The smart choice would've been to challenge this Kuro in an equal duel, so to allow the Swordsman some time to replenish his Aura and energies before fighting."

"Well… I guess that put like that, you're right," mumbled Ruby, though she was still cheering the Swordsman on to go and kick Kuro's black-clad butt back to Haven.

 **Kuro just smiled, "Fine. I'll just prove my skills to my beloved. But I don't have my weapons on me, so you have the advantage."**

 **Jaune took his sheathes off his back and handed them to Pyrrha. She used her Polarity to help with their weight. "Take care of these for me, Pyrrha?"**

 **"Jaune, you don't have to do this." She tried to convince him.**

 **"No, I do. You're my partner and friend. He has no right to talk to you like he owns you." Jaune cracked his knuckles. "Let me do this for you, Pyrrha. For everything you've done for me up til now." She looked at him and nodded. She made her way out of the ring and the match was started.**

"See? He is not even considering the fact he might lose," Ironwood pointed out. "Be honest with me and please do tell me what do you think is going to happen in case the Swordsman cannot defeat Kuro after all, and loses this match?"

Yang winced. "He makes a fool out of himself by declaring he's gonna protect Pyrrha and then getting his ass handed to him."

"He will also forever know that Kuro won against him during their first fight. First fights, like first impressions, are really hard to forget," added Weiss, cringing at the idea of that happening.

"All in all, he is going to be completely humiliated if he loses this fight," completed Winter.

 **The two got into their starting positions. Just from looking at his opponent's stance, he could tell he was trained in martial arts. This was gonna be a tough fight. "Come on, don't keep me waiting. I'll even give you the first move, it's the least a God can do." He gave Jaune a grin. Without a word, Jaune shot off with his aura to punch him in his stomach. Right as he was about to make contact, Kuro grabbed his arm and delivered a kick to his ribs. Jaune slid back and when he stopped jumped into the air with the use of his aura to go for an axe kick. Again, right before impact, he stepped to the side and delivered a punch to Jaune's stomach. This sent Jaune back but he flipped to land on his feet, he groaned in frustration before he charged at Kuro. He went for a right cross but faked it out to spin and connect his heel to his temple. But Kuro managed to catch his ankle before impact and spun with Jaune before letting go to send him flying. Jaune hit the ground and slid across the ring before he stopped. He looked to see Kuro bow to him, "That's the extent you can do to the likes of a God."**

"That… is honestly way worse than I was expecting," admitted Ozpin, frowning just the tiniest bit. "Apparently, Kuro does have the power to back up his arrogance."

"Come on, this is just the start," Pyrrha defended the Swordsman, though she too cringed a little bit at the seemingly ease with which Kuro had kicked him away. "Maybe things are going to change. Jaune is very creative when he needs to, so maybe he'll find a way to win this fight even though right now it looks like Kuro is winning."

"Let's just wait and see, then," sighed Cinder. She wasn't honestly interested in the fight. She had already seen what the Swordsman could do, and since the fight onscreen was without weapons, she couldn't even see if Kuro would push him to use his top abilities. And she knew there was no 'Kuro' in Haven thanks to Lionheart, so she wasn't even interested in that boy.

 **Jaune groaned in frustration as he was getting back to his feet, "Oum, you're a fucking tool." He took a second to regain his breath and something came to his mind. 'Were his eyes glowing a second ago?' he made a decision and ran at Kuro again. He faked another punch before he slid past him. When he was directly behind him. He used his aura to shoot off the ground for an elbow strike. Kuro spun around and dodged but not as fluently as before. As that was happening, Jaune spun his body and tried to connect with his other fist. Again, Kuro caught it and kicked Jaune away. But Jaune, saw it this time, his eyes were definitely glowing red.**

 **Jaune landed and just looked at him, "So, that's how you do it." Kuro tilted his head slightly and Jaune continued, "Every time you dodged or intercepted my attacks, your eyes were glowing red. And when you couldn't see me, your movements weren't as fluid. So, let me guess, that's your Semblance."**

 **Kuro's eyes widened before he started to clap again, "Very good. You found out my ability so quickly. As a reward, I'll tell you. My Semblance allows my eyesight to increase to exceptional levels. Because of that I can see the muscles of my opponents loosen or contract and that allows me to predict their next movement. And in some cases, if I use more aura, my perception of time changes. So, at that point my opponent is practically going in slow motion. But I haven't had to use that against you." He than just stares into Jaune's eyes, "So, you can see you have no chance of beating me." He then looks over to Pyrrha, who has been watching the whole fight worried. "So, give up and I'll be able to see my beloved."**

"That's an interesting Semblance," mused Qrow, rubbing his chin before taking out his flask and taking a drag from it. "It basically allows him to have the eyesight of a professional Hunter while he is still just a trainee. I wonder how it will evolve once he's graduated."

"Wait, professional Hunters can see like that?" Blake asked, surprised.

"Well, yes and no. We know how to enhance our eyes with our Aura without making them explode. It's a very useful trick. We don't really see muscles tensing, but the eyes of your opponent will always land on where they want to strike, even the briefest glance. Of course, if your opponent is very skilled too they'll be able to attack without looking, but even experts usually look where they want to hit just to be sure."

"This doesn't work on cross-eyed Hunters, I guess," Yang cut in with a smirk.

Qrow opened his mouth to speak before closing it again. "Well… uh… technically it shouldn't as you'd have trouble knowing where exactly they're looking. But Hunters never have such physical defects. Aura helps a lot with that."

 **"Oh shut up!" Jaune screamed. "Pyrrha isn't something for you to claim! She's one of the most amazing people I've met and she deserves more than to be treated like that! So, you better get ready because you're about to get your ass kicked!" Jaune reached into his pocket and pulled out his wind dust crystal and used his Semblance, his eyes shifted to light green before he charged Kuro again. Kuro just stood there and waited. Jaune went for a simple right jab and like before, Kuro grabbed his wrist to stop it. He grinned until he saw Jaune's smirk and instantly felt a force hit him in the chest, sending him flying backwards.**

 **Kuro skidded to a stop and looked at Jaune with confusion. "What was that?"**

"Oooh, Semblance against Semblance!" exclaimed Nora, giddy.

"It's going to be interesting," Winter stated plainly, hoping they would get to see a good fight. To tell the truth, she would've rather been somewhere else than there. She had the hunch that the only reason she was even there, was that because whoever had brought them there with that fireball just hadn't bothered to aim and had accidentally struck her too.

 **"Wouldn't you like to know." Jaune said before he charged him again. He went for a roundhouse kick aimed at his head. As he was kicking, he used his semblance to condense the air around his leg. Kuro used his forearm to block it but the air blast still caught him in the side of the head. This caused him to lose his balance and Jaune capitalized by continuing the spin and to deliver an axe kick with his other leg. He connected it onto his shoulder and the air blast forced him to the ground. The force behind it caused him to bounce off the ground and Jaune went to kick him in the stomach. Kuro managed to block it but the air blast sent him across the ring.**

 **Kuro slowly stands up, "It seems I won't be able to pull my punches with you. Let's see how you deal with the real power of the God of Victory!" he shouted and charged at Jaune. Jaune met him halfway, they both sent a punch to the other's face. Kuro used the full power of his semblance to alter his perception of time and move enough for Jaune's fist to miss him. He connected his into the side of Jaune's head. Before he knew what happened, Jaune released the control he had on the wind around his fist and the air blast shot outwards in all directions. It caught Kuro and the two were pushed back from each other.**

 **The two quickly engaged each other again and the two started trading blows. But neither were able to deliver a decisive hit. Kuro would dodge or deflect Jaune's attacks but would still get hit by the compressed air. Meanwhile, Jaune would use his control of air to cushion the blows to only take partial damage or use it to slightly divert the attacks, but Kuro's attacks were still chipping away at him. After what seemed like an eternity, the two separated and both were breathing raggedly. Jaune was more exhausted than Kuro, due to the fact he fought Pyrrha beforehand. The only reason he was still in this fight was because his wind enhanced aura was increasing his stamina.**

 **Kuro started laughing menacingly and this put everyone on edge. He stopped once he placed his hand onto his face and stared at Jaune from the gap between his fingers. "I have to admit; you are far more skilled than I gave you credit for. But it's time to finish this and be with my beloved." He flicks his wrists a certain way and blades flicked out of the sides of his bracers, forming a ninety five-degree angle with his arms. "Time to end this!" He charged at Jaune yet again. Jaune tried to avoid his blades but Kuro was now using his Semblance to figure out how he'd try to do so and would alter his attacks to hit him. Kuro was quickly chipping through the rest of Jaune's aura. Jaune quickly used his Semblance, he threw both his palms at him to try and push him away with a gust of wind. Kuro saw this and back flipped but as he did, two blades flicked out of his leg armor and caught Jaune in the chest.**

"That's cheating, he said he didn't have his weapons on him and had Jaune put aside his swords and now he's showing he did have his weapons!" Ruby cried in outrage.

"In a normal fight, Kuro's actions would've been the best choice, since he took all the advantages he could. However this is just a normal spar, he did it only to try and ensure his victory," grunted Ironwood, not liking the boy's actions even though in a real battle it was what he would've done too. "Despite the Swordsman's incaution in fighting him, I really wish he will teach this Kuro a lesson he severely needs to learn… humility."

 **Jaune fell to the ground exhausted. Kuro walked over until he was standing over him. "That's exactly where you belong, at the feet of a God. And now to be with my Goddess. You will never talk to her again, she belongs to me now." He said this and started to walk away.**

"In your dreams, asshole!" Yang shouted, while at the same time covering Ruby's ears. She knew the younger girl didn't need to have her ears covered, but sometimes doing that allowed her to put more emphasis in her curses.

"And in my nightmares," Pyrrha added with a shiver.

"Oh, come on Pyr, don't worry, there's your knight in shining armour here to protect you!" Nora grinned at her, making her blush slightly. She would've blushed more, but Ren loudly clearing his throat and pointed at the screen.

"I don't think it is over yet," he said emotionlessly. Inwardly, though, he was sporting a mental smug grin.

 **Jaune was barely conscious at this point. 'Is this all I can do? Is this what my training was for? I'm sorry, Pyrrha. I wasn't strong enough.' His vision started to go black but as it did, he started to see everything he had ever done with Pyrrha. He felt a warmth in his chest and he knew what it meant. With newfound determination, he started to pull himself out of his unconsciousness. 'This isn't over. Get up.' He clenched his fist. 'Get up!' He started raising himself up with shaky arms. 'Get up, damn it!' With one last push he was now back on his feet. But what he failed to notice is that the air around him had formed a cyclone around him and his right eye was glowing light green, with the same colored flames surrounding his eye.**

 **"Hey, Kuro!" he shouted and he turned in shock at what he saw. "Don't you dare touch my Pyrrha!" He shouted as he flew at him, literally flying with the air around him. He landed in front of him and delivered a series of devastating punches along with air blasts. He connected against his shoulders, both sides of his chest, stomach and solar plexus. Before he condensed the remainder of the cyclone into the palms of both of his hands, forming miniature cyclones. Jaune poured the last of his aura into the cyclones and they started to glow light green before he promptly slammed both palms into his chest. Kuro was sent flying across the ring and against the far wall as a green cyclone trailed behind him. Kuro fell off the wall unconscious and Jaune was left as the winner. He turned to Pyrrha with his usual smile before the room started to spin and next was only darkness.**

" _My_ Pyrrha?" all the students said at the same time.

Cinder scoffed as they exchanged looks while Pyrrha and Jaune blushed fully. "Seriously? You are shown such a display of power and you focus on the flimsy romantic hints hidden in a sentence spoken in rage? Your disregard for the fight itself is appalling."

"Had Cardin not been sent back, he would've agreed with you on that," Sun sighed at her student-of-Romance's ignorance of the very subject she was supposed to be studying. "Look, you can have a good fight whenever you want, but romance isn't something that happens so easily, okay? You can ask to spar with Qrow once we're done – I'm sure that'll be more than enough to sate your hunger for power fights."

Cinder glowered at him for the 'advice', but it wasn't actually _bad_ advice. Qrow didn't know she was a Maiden, or at least half a Maiden, so he wouldn't even try to just kill her outright. Maybe she would give it a shot. Maybe while the two 'lovebirds', the swan and the cat, had their pitiful date.

Back to the students, Ren once again saved his teammates from the embarrassment, at least for the time being. "Let's just see how this continues, okay?" He pointed at the screen, which was starting up again. "See? It's not over yet."

* * *

 **Jaune woke up looking at a white ceiling and his head was pounding like crazy. He groaned and brought his hand to his head, "Déjà vu."**

 **"Jaune!" He turned to quickly see Pyrrha envelope him in a tight hug. "You idiot! I was so worried. Don't scare me like that ever again."**

 **Jaune returned the hug, "Sorry, Pyr. Didn't mean to worry you. But at least I won." He smiled and chuckled.**

 **She pulled back from him, "That's not the point! Who cares if you won if you got hurt doing it. If you got hurt for my sake, I'd never forgive myself." Her eyes started to water.**

 **Jaune pulled her close and put her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry but that's something I can't change." She stiffened slightly. "I will risk anything and everything to protect the people I care about. You are my teammate and moreover, my partner. You are someone that is precious to me and to have someone like Kuro talk about you like that, is unacceptable." His words about Kuro were dripping with venom. He leaned his head against her's before he spoke next in a softer tone, "You're someone I can't live without, Pyrrha." He said out loud but added in his head, 'Because I love you.'**

"Here, now you can't deny it any more," Sun smirked, crossing his arms over his chest in a very satisfied manner. "Arkos forever. Oh, and the others too, of course!" He bit his lip and added in a whisper, "Though maybe I'd vote to change Knightshade into BlackSun…"

Unbeknownst to everyone, Sun had actually received the Big Book of Ships, which could quite easily be confused with the Big Book of Shit, but it was a completely different volume. He had gotten it from the library so that he could teach Cinder about them.

All the secrets of the ships were his… he had tried the evil laughter, but he was such a good boy that he just couldn't manage it.

"That's just pathetic," snorted Cinder. "They've known each other for a few months at most, and he can't live without her? Somehow I don't think that is how it works, even though I'll admit teenage drama is not my forte. Not only that, but he clearly stated he wasn't ready for a relationship if what monkey idiot told me is right. This seems the opposite of not ready."

"Eh, you try to keep your heart to yourself when you're in such company," Neptune sighed dreamily. "I mean, honestly, they're literally at the top of the list for the most beautiful girls in Beacon. Though I'm not telling which has which position, that'd just cause a giant brawl."

"Wise choice, Mr Vasilias," Ozpin sighed in relief. The last thing he wanted was a group of teenager girls brawling over who was prettier. Few girls really cared _that_ much for the public opinion, but Huntresses held a much higher percentage. Some Huntresses had taken up the mantle just because the career almost ensured long-lasting beauty on par with supermodels.

"I am still unconvinced," Cinder stated, crossing her arms.

"Then we'll find a way to convince you," Sun conceded easily, patting her shoulder as she glared at him. "There, happy now? Now let's continue to watch."

 **Neither said anything and just stayed holding each other. Until Pyrrha pulled back a bit and looked into Jaune's eyes with a blush. She leaned in and kissed Jaune on the cheek, right next to his lips. She pulled away and her blush was the same color as her hair. "You're someone I can't live without either, Jaune. And thank you for defending me." She said bashfully.**

 **Jaune recovered and with his own blush, smiled. "I'd do it again, Pyrrha."**

 **They stared at each other with their blushes intact. Pyrrha finally found her voice, "So, I'm 'your' Pyrrha?" She said with a small smile.**

 **Jaune blushed more and scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Uh, yeah, sorry about that. Kuro really pushed my buttons." He sighed, "I tell him not to talk like he owns you and I go off and do the same. Pretty hypocritical."**

 **"Not really." Pyrrha said and Jaune turned to her. "Kuro didn't care about me the way you do. You genuinely care about me as a person, not as a celebrity or champion. That makes all the difference."**

 **Jaune smiled at that, "Thanks, Pyr. By the way, what happened to Kuro after the fight?"**

 **"Oh, his team showed up slightly after and escorted him away. They apologized to us for his actions. That reminds me." She said before she stood up, "I better tell Nora and Ren you're up. They went to make sure Team RWBY didn't go after Kuro for hurting you. I'll get everyone and bring them here, okay?" Jaune nodded and Pyrrha made her way to the door. She turned around and Jaune gave her a small wave. As she left, he gently draped his hand over his face and sighed.**

 **"So, I'm in love with Blake, Yang and Pyrrha. I'm in deep trouble." he said out loud before he flopped onto his bed in the infirmary.**

"Hey, why not with me too?!" Ruby exclaimed, outraged. "He kissed me! And now he's leaving me out!?"

"I'm sure the Swordsman loves you too, he just hasn't realized it yet," Weiss 'reassured' her partner, not really in the mood for listening to her love complaints. "Besides you have Jaune, why should you care?"

"Because I want my other versions to be happy too!" pouted Ruby, pushing out her lower lip and looking at the ground.

"Aww, you're so cute when you do that!" exclaimed Yang, pinching her cheeks as she cooed her. "That's why, no matter what, you'll always be my baby sister! Aww!"

"Yang, stop it!" Ruby growled and jumped over the blonde, kicking and punching and biting. Jaune balked at the catfight and hightailed out of there as fast as he could. He knew who would win already, and he really didn't want to be caught in the loser's backslash. Yang was way better at unarmed fighting, but of course she'd allow Ruby to win.

Just like she had done back in Initiation, or at least that's what she told him.

"Hey." Jaune turned around at the word, coming face-to-face with Blake, who was looking at the catfight with a look of deja-vu. Shaking her head as if to clear it, she returned to look at him. "Do you want to have our 'date' now? It'd be best, so we don't miss any viewing…"

Jaune's cheeks gained a pink shade, but he nodded nonetheless. "Yeah… now we only have to find a place where to go in this fortress. Or maybe we'll just take a walk around. What would you prefer?"

"I like the sound of walking aimlessly while talking," admitted the girl as the two began to walk away. "Do you think we should tell the others we're going?"

Jaune thought about it, but then shook his head. "No. They'll know what we're doing, plus if we leave while they are distracted by Ruby and Yang, there are less chances of anyone knowing where we are, and stalking us all thorough our date."

"Right…" Blake had a smirk on her face while saying that. "As if they could stalk me…"

"Yeah, but you have basically two-and-a-half hundreds pounds of luggage with you," Jaune pointed out, knowing that the armour itself weighted basically as much as he did. "Wrapped up in sparkly golden armour and with large stark white wings that are perfectly visible even in the distance."

"I'll figure something out…"

 ** _As you can see I'm not having Jaune and the girls date immediately. Technically speaking he's not dating Ruby or Yang either, though the exact definition is still hazy and blurry. They act like they're in a relationship but they're still giving it a shot. Everyone still has to wrap their heads around it._**

 ** _Yes, from now on Sun knows all the ships._**

 ** _And I hope I got Ironwood's character right here. He's not badmouthing Jaune, it's just that Jaune really is in an environment where all his skills are below abysmal. It's not wickedness, just the truth._**

 ** _Well, I guess I'm done here. Let's post this before another month passes. (As you can guess, I have not forgiven myself for making you wait so long. Heh, and then I complain when people take too long to update. I guess I really am a hypocrite)_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	32. Chapter 31

**_Ugh, okay. Confirmed, from the 29th to the 5th I'm on a vacation. I'll still have my computer, but forget updates. I'll reply to PMs and chat, but otherwise I'm planning on spending time with my sister, not typing away at my computer. So yeah, see you in a little more than a week. Also, 20 days instead of a month between last update and this. Hey, I'm getting better!_**

 ** _Though with five active stories, no wonder I can't update more often than once a month each. I'm no Coeur._**

"Here you are! Do you have any idea of how long we've waited?!" Weiss marched up to the two teenagers with a fearsome scowl on her face. "Thirty-six minutes! For thirty-six minutes you've gone missing and we had to wait for you before the next viewing!"

"Hey guys, can you two go on another date? I'm trying to finish my Romance and Fluff lessons with Cindy here."

"It's Cinder!"

"No they can't Sun, we have a viewing to watch and we're gonna watch it now! So take your seats. Jaune, you sit here on the big red X mark. Blake, you sit there on that big skull drawing." Weiss pointed to the two hurriedly-drawn marks on the ground, both drawn with some kind of instant-dry paint they had probably asked Phoenix or the houseowner for. "Then we can start the viewing."

"I'm not sitting there," Blake stated with finality, narrowing her eyes at the propeller Glyph poorly hidden under the skull painting. "I get you're jealous but that goes too far."

"Aww, Ice Queen here had even bribed the houseowner to interrupt the spell that prevents people from being thrown off, now it's all for nothing," complained Nora, making Jaune and Blake stare at Weiss with no little amount of worry.

"You bribed a semi-omnipotent demigod-like entity not of this world? How?!" yelled Jaune, bewildered.

Weiss was silent for a second. "…I won't deign any of you with the knowledge of the deal between Khorevik and me."

"She promised she'd stop calling him just 'the houseowner' as that is getting quite annoying for him," Nora helpfully supplied.

"You allowed her to attempt premeditated homicide in exchange of being called by your name instead of by your title?!" Blake shouted upwards as if the houseowner had been floating over their heads all that time.

A pregnant silence was all the answer she received.

"I can't believe this." Blake's words were so full of disappointment that even the houseowner felt a little bit ashamed despite all his… psychological peculiarities. With a sigh, she plopped down on the ground – pretty far from the skull painting.

"I am sure the houseowner wouldn't actually allow any of us to bypass the protective spell," Ozpin chimed in amiably. "As little as we've seen him, he still housed us here as a favour to Mr Phoenix, and is providing us with food and anything we wish for. I do believe that proves he's not a bad person."

"Problem's not if he's bad or not Oz, it's what sense of humour does he have," Qrow commented with a grin, taking out his flask for a drink. "Besides, with his powers he could probably allow them to kill kitty cat and then resurrect her or something. So what you should be worried about is his sense of-hey!"

His educational speech was rudely interrupted by Helios who, having taken an interest in the shiny object Qrow was drinking from, jumped up and snatched it from the Huntsman's hands, resulting in the latter's cry of protest. Then the large puppy began to run around, chased by the old Hunter, trying to drink from the flask and eventually ending up managing the feat.

Only to recoil in disgust and run around even faster before jumping on Goodwitch's lap and spitting the flask off the edge, with Qrow diving after it.

"No!" Ruby reached out, but it was far too late. "The spell's not active! Uncle Qrow!"

Everyone waited with held breaths for the flames to appear, but in fact they did not.

Instead, an annoyed crow with burnt feathers, holding a flask in its talons, flew up from the chasm, squawking angrily before diving into the fountain to soothe the burns. A sopping wet Qrow emerged from the water, scowling at the innocent-looking puppy before turning his annoyed glare upwards. "And you, lazy ass, get that spell back in place!"

 _"Jeez, one can't even take a break that everyone's already breathing down his neck…"_

"What the fuck are you talking about?! You are the one who took out the spell not even ten minutes ago!" Receiving no answer from the houseowner, Qrow tossed a rock in the chasm. A few seconds later, orange flames appeared over his head and dropped the pebble right on his skull. Rubbing the new bump, he grumbled something about asshole godlike entities and where they could shove their powers. But at least the spell was back in place.

With that drama being over, everyone settled down to watch the new viewing, with Yang now laying before Jaune, her head propped up on his lap – said position also gave him a complete view down her shirt of course, but Qrow's glare boring into his back was doing wonders to keep his libido down. Ruby had temporarily given up her spot on Jaune's lap as sitting on his crossed legs all the time was starting to make his legs go numb, now opting for sitting beside him, hugging his arm to her chest.

And with that, the screen started up.

 **Jaune was released from the infirmary the next day. The doctors wanted him to stay the night to make sure that there weren't any other problems. Jaune was annoyed by this, it was nearly the same situation he was in the last time he pushed his Semblance into what he referred to as 'Stage Two.' His team and RWBY did show up to see how he was. They also hung around for the rest of the day until they had to leave. Jaune stayed up a while after that to think about the problem with his heart. How could he be in love with those three amazing girls? He sighed at his own stupid question before he opted to just go to bed.**

"I'm still miffed you aren't including me even though you kissed me and not Pyrrha!" pouted Ruby, and she pouted more when the others laughed.

"Oh come on, don't be such a sour loser, you have your own boyfriend. Let's not play matchmaker with someone from another dimension," chuckled Yang, rising to ruffle her sister's hair before laying back down.

 **The next day wasn't terrible. He was released somewhat early and he went to see his friends. Although, he found that both of the dorms were empty. He checked his scroll to see if he had any messages from any of them, he didn't. He sighed before he decided to go to the training rooms to work out for a bit. "I know I tell them not to worry, but they could've at least been around when I got released." He sighed before entering the training room. He set it up to fight nine drones at an advanced level. The timer started to count down, Jaune drew his new Kakiri and his eyes shifted to red. He had a small grin as the timer hit zero.**

"That's so mean!" exclaimed Nora, horrified. "What does that mean?! Does that mean we stopped caring about him?! What is gonna happen next?! Will we sell him out to some bad guys so they can experiment on him?! Will we get him expelled?! Will we try to backstab him?!"

For once, it was Ren who used the age-old technique of ignoring all kinds of logic to peer into the future, but as opposite to Nora he kept his newfound knowledge for himself, only uttering a, "I'm sure everything will be fine, Nora."

The redhead slumped in relief. "Oh, I was getting worried…"

 **He started to cut into the robots with his broadsword, he liked the added reach he got from it. He was getting swarmed, so he started to rely on his increased strength and fire aided melee to help out. He soon cleared out the nine training drones he set up and was debating on whether to go again or not. He shrugged and restarted the training, he had nothing else to do. By the end of his second bout with the drones, his swordplay and melee started to mix very well together. He grinned before he decided to use the locker room showers to freshen up. He deposited his swords in his locker and left shortly after that.**

 **He made his way to the cafeteria to grab a light lunch before he decided to walk around Beacon. It was a very nice day, warm and the breeze just added to the peacefulness. He made one full lap around Beacon before he sat under his group's usual spot under the same tree to rest. He was just sitting in the shade and started to wonder where everyone was.**

"That's what I'm wondering too," admitted Weiss. "I mean, it is normal for us not to be in our dorm all the time, but we haven't see a member of one of our teams wherever the Swordsman went. Are we not in Beacon?"

"We just have to watch on and see." Ren turned to Sun, who was wearing a mopey face. "Sun, are you okay?"

"No I'm not okay! I wanted to see the Swordsman's harem romance continue but if they are not in Beacon, how am I supposed to get my daily dose of fluff?!" the monkey Faunus cried dramatically, rivers of tears flowing down his cheeks.

Beside him, trapped by his tail being wrapped around her midsection and too exasperated to even break free, Cinder scoffed, "He's not even being dramatic. He might seriously go into withdrawal if he doesn't get his damned fluff." She looked at him in disgust. "And you, idiot, you have your 'romance' right here on this balcony, did you forget that?"

Sun paused and blinked the tears out of his eyes before looking at Cinder as if she had just told him the meaning of Life itself. Then he broke out in a gigantic smile and hugged her with all her strength before showing her off to the others. "See?! See?! My lessons are paying off! She managed to recognize the harem romance that is in the air here! She did! I taught her that, heh!"

"Put me down you mongrel!"

 **He pulled out his wind dust crystal that he used against Kuro and just looked at it. Its color was dulled and he knew it was getting low on its energy. "I'm gonna need to get a new one soon." He said to himself before looking at his scroll for the time. He had about an hour before the next Bullhead would leave for Vale and decided to go do it today. He absorbed the last of the crystals energy and his eyes shifted to light green. He made sure no one was around before he created a small cyclone in the palm of his hand. He watched it for a while before he sent his aura into it and it started to glow the same light green as his right eye gained the fire-like effect.**

"Hey Oz, I noticed it last time during the fight but didn't bring it up 'cause I thought it was a glitch of the screen or a dramatic special effect, but isn't that the sign of magic?" Qrow whispered to Ozpin.

"Indeed you're right, old friend. While I doubt the Swordsman actually wields magic, we must not forget that Aura and Semblances are the tiniest pieces of magic left on Remnant. Similar optic effects are to be expected." Ozpin sipped his mug of cocoa, having changed it a while ago when he got bored of receiving always the same brand of coffee whenever he ordered a mug from the houseowner. "However, given how varied in powers and appliance his Semblance is, I am not against considering the idea of him having inherited more magic than most, thus making for a truly peculiar Semblance."

"More magic? Is that even possible? I thought the stuff vanished a long time ago."

"It has, but then how would you explain Auras and Semblances?" Qrow had to admit it, Ozpin had a very good point. Hard to argue with logic when logic allowed people to have random superpowers.

 **He just looked at the now glowing cyclone in his hand. It was weird in a way. The elements boost his aura, and by extension himself, but with his Semblance in 'Stage Two' he could boost the element with his aura. They could boost each other temporarily but could never be equals. One would always have to get behind and support the other, but what would happen if the element and his aura could stand side by side?**

"Ooh, foreshadowing!" Nora exclaimed cheerfully.

The others had to admit that yeah, Nora was right, that was definitely foreshadowing. Or teasing, depending on how they looked at it. Now that they thought about it, the Swordsman would probably find out the answer to his question, so it was very probably actual teasing.

"Just how overpowered can this guy get?" Neptune mumbled, rancorous.

 **"Jaune?" he was pulled from his thoughts and his eye stopped glowing by the accented voice of Velvet.**

 **He turned to see her and Coco making their way over to him. He smiled and nodded at them. "Hey Vel, hey Coco. What are you two doing?**

 **"Nothing much." Coco said. "We were going to head down to Vale. What about you?"**

 **Jaune shrugged, "Just enjoying the day. I was planning on going to Vale too, once the next Bullhead was here, of course."**

 **"Well, do you want to come with us then?" Velvet asked slightly nervous.**

 **"That sounds great. If you two don't mind." Jaune replied.**

 **"No trouble at all. But on one condition." Coco said.**

 **"Okay, what would that be?"**

 **Coco looked over her sunglasses directly at Jaune's hand, "Explain how you are doing that."**

 **Jaune looked at his hand and realized he still had the cyclone infused with his aura in his hand. His eyes grew wide and he started to panic. He looked back at the two of them but calmed himself. He trusted both of them, they were his friends. He sighed, "My Semblance. Right now I'm controlling the air into a small cyclone. It's glowing light green because I'm using my aura to strengthen it." He turned back to them and the two were looking at him in disbelief.**

"Why are they so curious?" Ironwood wondered aloud. "We've seen him use his Semblance during class before, and even then, our own Mr Arc has an Air Manipulation Semblance as well. They shouldn't have been that surprised."

"Maybe they aren't, but they want the specifics," Glynda offered an explanation. "After all, he has explained his Semblance only to his closest friends."

"And since they too are his buddies, they want to know what his Semblance is," Qrow completed, taking out his flask for a drink before remembering it had dog drool all over it. With a sigh, he took out an unexpectedly delicate-looking handkerchief and began cleaning it.

"Hey!" exclaimed Winter, seeing the silky cloth. "That's mine, Qrow!"

 **"You never mentioned your Semblance before." Velvet said.**

 **Jaune shrugged, "Sorry for not telling you. I just never liked broadcasting it."**

 **"Why not? It seems pretty cool to me." Coco said with a teasing smile.**

 **Jaune smirked before the cyclone flew out of his hand towards Coco. Before she could react, the cyclone snagged her sunglasses off her face and guided them to his outstretched hand that once held the cyclone. The two looked in disbelief again and Jaune chuckled, "It has a habit of getting me in trouble." He said before he slid them over his eyes.**

"Another thing I don't understand is how he says he hates to show people his Semblance, yet he recklessly shows it every time a match gets any harder than 'pushover', or every time his emotions get the better of him. Even against the Boarbatusk during Professor Port's class, he could've killed it easily even without the use of his Semblance. It's… I am honestly confused by his behaviour," added the Atlasian General. "And in basically all the fights we've seen him fighting, aside from that one spar with Ms Nikos where he had explicitly stated he wouldn't use his Semblance, he does make use of it despite claiming he does not like to show it. He even moulded his fighting style and weapons to the specific purpose of working with his Semblance. Those are the actions of someone who incredibly relies on his Semblance, and consider it an essential element to his fighting style."

"That's not true!" protested Ruby. "We've seen him fight without his Semblance and he was good!"

"I am not saying he is without skill outside of his Semblance, Ms Rose, but his Semblance's power and variety makes up more than two thirds of his strength. He uses it even for mundane tasks, or just to show off like he just did with Ms Adel. That is not the behaviour of someone who doesn't want to broadcast his Semblance, but rather the actions of someone who is so comfortable with showing his Semblance to do so almost unconsciously," Ironwood explained to the young reaper, who oohed in realization as the point got across. "I'll make a practical example. Ms Nikos is extremely famous due to her combat prowess and her victories in tournaments. Do you follow thus far?"

Ruby nodded even though Pyrrha winced at being taken as example.

"Now, Ms Nikos fights every battle to win it, and to win it with a crushing defeat for her opponents, as she had demonstrated multiple times during her tournaments. Most of the times, without ever getting hit. Keep in mind that detail. Now let's suppose Ms Nikos hates her fame because it made her separated from other people, and feels lonely." Ironwood didn't notice Pyrrha openly wince, and even Nora cringed. "That would make no sense. If Ms Nikos really felt that way, she would've just abandoned her fame. She could do it anytime. If she just allowed herself to lose a match, or to take some serious hits in a fight, she'd shatter the image of the Invincible Girl. So, if she says to hate her fame, but never tries to get rid of it, instead trying to get fame _and_ normalcy at the same time, what message do you get from the situation?"

Ruby quickly mouthed a _'sorry'_ to her fellow redhead. "W-Well, either she doesn't really hate her fame or she's a very very indecisive person?"

Ironwood's stare remained stern for a second before the man sighed and waved a hand. "It's an… acceptable answer. Yes, if that were the case, Ms Nikos either is the most indecisive person on Remnant -and her matches prove she's anything but indecisive- or she actually enjoys the benefits and perks that come with her fame. In our example, she might still dislike the downsides of fame, but she still considers its pros more than its cons, wanting to have the perks of both fame and normalcy, without either's downsides."

The more the General went on, the more Pyrrha sank in her seat, beginning to wonder just how spot-on the man was. Beside her, Ren patted her back comfortingly.

"Likewise, the Swordsman does not like the attention his Semblance brings him, yet he does enjoy its benefits and powers, to the point where he uses it as naturally as you might use yours, Ms Rose, but then hates the fact that it brings him attention," concluded Ironwood. "Had he actually wished to keep his Semblance a last-resort weapon, he would've used another fighting style altogether, using his Semblance only in times of extreme need. I wonder what he'll do when he'll realize this. Will he change his fighting style and learn a new one, or will he just abandon his dislike for his Semblance?"

"But General, doesn't that link to what you said earlier, about his wish to protect everyone he cares for and how he won't allow himself to fail someone?" Blake spoke up. "Wouldn't that cause him to hate his Semblance for attracting so much hatred on him, yet hold onto it because he knows of its power, and thinks that without it he will fail the people he loves?"

The man considered her question for a second before sighing. "Yes, I'm afraid it does. We'll see how this goes."

 **Coco regained her senses and smirked at him, "Smooth move, Arc. Now how about you give me back my glasses before I get annoyed." She gently tapped her hand on her bag, which he knew was also her minigun.**

 **Jaune got up and started to walk towards her. He took them off and held them out to her. As she reached out to for them, they suddenly shot up into the air due to a gust of wind. She looked up in shock before she felt Jaune put his hand on her stomach. She quickly looked at him before Jaune gently pushed her back a step. She was about to kick him in the crotch before he held his hand out again and her glasses stopped due to a small cyclone in his hand again. They then slowly moved forward until they gently went back to being on their owner's face. Jaune just smiled at her, "Better?"**

Everyone in the room literally deadpanned at his actions.

"Show off much…" mumbled Cinder, raising an eyebrow at the Swordsman.

Even Goodwitch had a disapproving frown on her face. "Boasting and shows like that are what I hate most of the students with flashy Semblances. They keep trying to use them to look 'cool'… at least this time the Swordsman didn't cause _me_ extra work after destroying the courtyard with a tornado."

Jaune thought back to what Phoenix had told him at the word 'tornado', and had a strange vision of him accidentally losing control of one such monster while training. He shivered at the thought of what Goodwitch would do to him if that ever happened near Beacon or Vale, and quickly chose to start training in the Emerald Forest when he got to the point of being able of use his Semblance in a destructive way.

Yeah, Professor Goodwitch was scarier than any whirlwind, no matter the size.

 **She smiled slightly, "Bold move, Arc. You're lucky I didn't hurt you."**

 **"Please, if you wanted to hurt me, you would've, Coco. That's who you are." He smiled, "But I like that about you. Although I don't understand why you wear those sunglasses. They're cool and all but you look way better without them."**

Ruby and Yang frowned at the Swordsman for the offhanded compliment. "I am torn between calling him a flirt, and telling him to smart up and stop giving women random compliments on their beauty, because if he does not do the same with men, he's gonna surely come across as a flirt," mumbled Yang, unhappy about the Swordsman's words.

"Well, the only other male in our group is Ren, and if he were to compliment him, well…" Weiss's eyes moved over to Nora. "You know what would happen."

 **Jaune, at that point, walked back to sit at the tree and missed the faint blush on Coco's face. The three sat around and just chatted with each other. They soon all made their way to Vale, Jaune used his aura to calm his motion sickness but he found it was only half as bad as his first trip. They decided to just stay together and do all their shopping together. They stopped by From Dust Til Dawn so Jaune could buy his new wind dust crystal. They then went to pick up more ammo for Coco's gun, which was an enormous amount. The two women then dragged Jaune to go clothes shopping. He wasn't happy about that but sucked it up. He gave both girls his opinion on their outfits. After about an hour and a half of that, Coco decided to ask Jaune something she was curious about for a while, "So, Arc, do you own any other clothes or what?"**

 **Jaune sighed, "Yes, Coco, I do. They just all look the same. I have several pairs blue jeans and black shirts."**

 **She looked at him in shock, "You're serious?"**

 **Jaune nodded, "Yup. Just my style and I think it looks good on me."**

 **"You do look good, Jaune." Velvet said.**

 **Jaune smiled, "Thank you, Velvet. This isn't just a way to get me to make you brownies, is it?"**

 **She looked away bashfully, "No. But your brownies are the best I've had."**

 **Jaune chuckled, "Vel, if you want some, you just have to ask. Hell, I make Ruby cookies practically every week."**

Neptune's eye began to twitch. "Is there a single thing he's not good at? Is he even human? How can he be so good at so many things? Didn't he wander aimlessly with his teacher for years? Didn't he train for the past seven or so years? Even if he did have to learn how to cook, cookies and brownies are _not_ food you learn how to cook if you are a wanderer!"

"Are you envious?" laughed Yang.

"Damn yes I am! Anyone would, and not because of his luck with the girls, who basically swarm him as he does absolutely nothing, and for stupid reasons too!" Neptune exclaimed, clearly pissed. "We've yet to see any kind of thing he's bad at – aside from his overprotectiveness slash fear of failing slash obsession with strength. It's like the entire universe revolves around it!"

"Well, that might actually be the case, Mr Vasilias," Ozpin replied with a shrug. Everyone turned to him. "We _have_ been brought into an otherworldly dimension by two godlike entities from far away universes to watch the life of the Swordsman. I am just saying that this alone would mark the Swordsman as someone extremely important to th-"

 _"Ehhh, actually no."_ A disembodied voice spoke up, startling them. _"Yeah, sorry for chipping in, but I bet Phoenix must be getting tired of popping in and out to explain every minute thing, so I'll just explain this myself even though I didn't want any direct interaction with you – a failed promise, I know, I know. But anyway no, the Swordsman is not someone important to the universe. Heck, the Grimm could overrun Remnant and the universe would go on just fine, only without humanity, so it's not like the hero is the important one. Not any more than anyone and anything else in the universe. The point is, the Swordsman is the protagonist of this story, so this story follows his journey through Life, and as such it appears as if the universe revolves around him. Heck, I bet all of you have thought, during your life, to be the centre of the universe, at least once."_

"Then why have we been brought here?" Winter asked. "If the Swordsman is not important to the universe, why are we here to watch a simple student?"

 _"Simple. Phoenix and I are friends, and this universe you're watching has been documented by him. So I decided to do him a favour and I brought you here to watch it because – well, had I left you where you were, it would've been sooo boring to document this reality. At least I spiced it up a little. And don't act scandalized, you all gained much from it… well, most of you at least. And hey, it's free food and entertainment! Who would say no to that?"_

"But still, I see every reason to be envious!" Neptune continued. "Add to that the fact all the girls are falling for him for no reason at all, and you have the perfect cocktail for envy _and_ jealousy. And before you argue, I get he's nice, kind, funny, brave, caring, doesn't look at your bodies, like you for who you are, etc. but it's not like he's the only one on Remnant to be like that. They seem to like him just because he's a decent guy, as if every single guy they've met in their lives was a douche. That just feels so illogical."

 _"Hate to admit, but he's got a point. Maybe it's the famous Arc charm finally showing some results?"_

"Who even asked you?!" Neptune shouted at the sarcastic houseowner, still pissed for everything that had happened to him. Both at the houseowner and at Phoenix. And truthfully, who could blame him for that?

 **"That aside, we aren't leaving until we buy you at least one new outfit." Coco said sternly.**

 **Jaune conceded. He looked around for a bit before he picked out a pair of black jeans and skin tight, long sleeve black shirt He quickly changed into it before showing it off to the two girls, "How do I look?" The two were just staring. The new shirt extended up his neck and was showing off all of Jaune's toned figure to them. They both agreed it looked good on him and soon they bought it along with their own outfits before they all left to get back to Beacon. Jaune carried their bags all the way to their dorm.**

 **"You really didn't have to, Jaune. We could've managed." Velvet said to him.**

 **"I know but I would've felt bad. Besides, this was just how I was raised." They got to their dorm and Coco opened the door for them. Jaune walked in and saw Fox and Yatsuhashi already there. He waved to them and they returned the gesture. He placed their bags on their beds. "Thank you girls for the trip. It was better than hanging out by myself all day." He smiled.**

 **Both returned the smile before Coco spoke up, "Not at all. It was enjoyable, Arc."**

 **Jaune sighed, "Coco, could you just call me Jaune? I think we're close enough for that."**

 **"Hmmmm." Coco said with a mock thinking face on. "I'll give it some thought, Arc." She added with a smile.**

 **Jaune just nodded before he started to leave, "And Yatsu, when are we having that Shogi rematch?"**

 **Yatsu stopped meditating and looked at him, "Whenever you want. Just make it challenging this time." He said with a small smile.**

"Case and point, he's not good at everything!" Ruby triumphantly pointed out.

"What even _is_ Shogi?" Jaune asked, confused.

"I have absolutely no idea," confessed the redhead. "But those are meaningless details."

"Shogi is an ancient game similar to chess, but with more pieces, and different rules, though it still represent the battle between two armies." Ozpin chuckled. "Shogi is extremely more complex than chess, though. The simple fact the Swordsman knows about it… well, it is enough to make me admit that Mr Vasilias actually has a point. I do not know how the Swordsman could've learned so much thorough his life – unless he lived for far longer than the seventeen years he said to have lived, but I doubt that's the case."

"See? Even Ozpin agrees with me," huffed Neptune, showing them the tongue when they frowned at him. "The Swordsman's far too… too… too _perfect_. It just doesn't even feel real nor human any more. I mean, I can get he's like two Pyrrhas and a half at fighting. His training regime must've been nightmarish, but fine. I can get he can also keep up with lessons and such. Again, I pity him for all the work he must've done, but fine. But this? This is just getting ridiculous. It'd be quicker to list the things he is not good at than the things he is good at. No human being could be _that_ good at _that_ many things."

 **"I almost had you and you know it!" Was all Jaune said as he left. He made his way from their dorm to his own and walked in. He found that it was still empty and shrugged. He put his new clothes away and made his way to the common room. He wanted some coffee after the day he had. He got to the common room and flicked the lights on but as he did, he heard people shouting, "Surprise!" Jaune quickly jumped back to see his team and RWBY there with a cake and a banner that said Happy Birthday. Jaune just stared at them for a bit, "Uh, guys? My birthday was last week."**

"Whoa, there we were!" exclaimed Ruby.

"And we prepared him a birthday party!" added Nora.

"Something we should really consider doing, to be honest. Although we still don't even know each other's birthdays…" Ren mumbled.

 **"We know!" Ruby shouted as she came over and grabbed his hand before walking him into the room. "We couldn't celebrate it for obvious reasons, so we decided to throw you a party now!" She said excitedly.**

 **Jaune sighed tiredly before he grinned slightly, "Thanks guys. Even though this isn't my thing, I appreciate it."**

 **Nora jumped over to him and pulled him into a bear hug, "We just wanted to show how much we love you, Fearless Leader."**

 **Jaune smiled and looked at everyone before he returned her hug and kissed the top of her head, "Thank you, Little Sister."**

 **Ren walked over to them and handed him a small box, slightly bigger than his palm, "Don't thank her yet." He said with a small smile.**

 **Jaune took it and opened it and his eyes lit up. Inside was a silver necklace. It had a silver fox that had the tip of its tail almost touching its nose to create a circle. It was Gin's symbol and it hung from a silver chain. Jaune looked up at Nora and Ren, "You two fixed it?" They both nodded before he pulled them into a hug. "I love you two." They returned the hug and when they broke apart, he put the necklace over his head.**

"Wait a sec, I'm betting that he's gonna kiss each and every one of the girls!" Sun called out.

"What?!" exclaimed Cinder, looking at him in bewilderment. "How can you even say something like that?! There is no hint that'll happen!"

"Ah, dear Cindy, romance's in the air, remember, and romance's all-powerful," recited the monkey Faunus, wrapping an arm around the woman's shoulders and waving around with the other as if to gesture to all the 'romance in the air' around. "And once you start applying that big beautiful brain of yours to the lessons I teach you, you will find out that romance speaks to all of us and tells us its ways… we just need to listen to it."

"Wow, Sun, I never thought you were into poetry," commented Yang, clearly impressed.

Sun smirked. "I'm not. I'm just listening to romance's suggestions!"

 **"So, what's with the bling, Hero?" Yang asked.**

 **"Mother gave each of us a necklace like this when we forged our weapons. It was like our graduation gift. I broke it when we defended that village. I carried it around but it was never the same." He gently slid the necklace under his shirt and felt the cold metal against his chest and smiled.**

 **Pyrrha came up next and handed him a bigger box, "I hope you like it." Jaune unwrapped the box and opened it to see a white rerebrace exactly like his old one, except this one had the same fox symbol on it but in black. His symbol was also in the middle of the circle the fox made. Jaune looked over at Pyrrha and she looked away bashfully, "I know you said you couldn't get the sentimental value from a new one but I was hoping that this would help. Ren and Nora told me about the necklace and well…." She was cut off when Jaune brought her into a hug.**

 **"I love it, Pyrrha." He kissed the side of her head before continuing, "Thank you." She nodded dumbly before she returned the hug with a blush and a big smile. They stayed like that until Yang coughed.**

"Aaaaand one!" Sun began to count.

"Are you just ignoring the gifts?" Weiss asked, quite annoyed by the Faunus's behaviour.

"Well yeah!" laughed the blond. "I mean, it's not like they're for _me_ , so of course I'm ignoring the gifts!"

 **"That's cute and all but we're still in the room." Yang said teasingly but slightly worried. The two broke apart. Yang handed her gift to him. He opened it to find a pair of black fingerless gloves like his own but these had metal studded knuckles. Before he said anything, Yang spoke, "I thought you're hand-to-hand could use a push. I wanna see you use them in our next spar." She said with a grin.**

"Nice and all, but then why doesn't Yang use some like those herself?" asked Jaune, glancing at his girlfriend's fingerless gloves.

"Because she's an idiot," snarked Weiss.

"'Cause I don't need any stud, I already have you!" grinned the blonde, making him blush deeply at the praise. "Plus my weapons cover my knuckles so I'm fine."

"They don't exactly cover it… it's just that you have Aura," Ruby pointed out. Nobody was surprised by the fact she perfectly knew her sister's weapon, to the point that she was able to tell off the top of her head whether Ember Celica arrived over the knuckles or not.

 **Jaune just smirked at her, "You're such a masochist."**

 **She returned the smirk, "Wouldn't you like to know." She said teasingly.**

 **He playfully rolled his eyes, "Thank you, Yang. I'll install the metal sensors from my old gloves onto them and then I'll start using them."**

 **"That's all? I don't get a hug or kiss?" She whined. Jaune gave in and hugged her, she returned it and he could feel her push her breasts against his chest to tease him. She then whispered into his ear, "What about that kiss?"**

 **"Close your eyes." Jaune said. Yang was shocked but listened to him. She than felt his lips on her cheek and she opened her eyes. "Better?" She was slightly disappointed but nodded.**

"Aaaaaand two!" grinned Sun.

"Are you going to say that for every kiss?" Blake snorted, kind amused.

"If there's anything I've learned from his 'Romance Lessons', it's that he's very serious about it," sighed Cinder, beyond exasperated. "So yes, he probably is."

 **Blake poked him from behind and he turned to see her handing him a package. "I thought you'd like this, Jaune." He grinned at her and opened it.**

 **He thought it'd be a book but found it to be a silver hoodie with a golden zipper. He pulled it out and just looked at it. "Wow, Blake, this looks awesome!"**

 **She blushed slightly. "I'm glad you like it. I noticed your black one is getting worn out, so I thought you'd like a new one." She said out loud but added in her head, 'And maybe you'll give me your old one.'**

"What's with girls and wearing boy's clothes?" sighed Ren. Nora regularly forced him to buy new clothes whenever his old ones mysteriously went missing – in the scant few seconds he was changing into his pyjamas, with only he and Nora in the room. She still denied everything. Even though her nightwear was literally the same daywear she had just stolen from him.

He never got those clothes back.

 **She was brought out of her thought as Jaune hugged her as well. "Thank you, Blake. But would you mind if I wait to wear it for a special occasion? Would seem kinda wrong not to."**

 **She returned his hug and nodded, "I don't have a problem with that. But, um…." She added nervously.**

 **"What is it?" Jaune asked.**

 **"Can I get a kiss too?" Before she knew it she felt a pressure through her bow, directly on top of her cat ear. Jaune pulled away and Blake blushed profusely at the realization. Jaune had just kissed her cat ear, indirectly but still. No one had ever done that before.**

 **"Blake? You okay?" Jaune said as he was waving his hand in front of her face. She was not reacting at all. "Uh, I think I broke her."**

"Aaaaaaaaand three!" exclaimed Sun, pumping a fist in the air.

"Oh Dust someone just make him stop…" groaned Cinder, who was sitting right next to him -not by her choice though- and was starting to feel a headache from his shouts.

"I didn't know it was so peculiar for a Faunus to have their traits kissed," commented Winter, slightly interested in that new tidbit of info.

"It actually isn't. It's just that, well, people usually avoid kissing the top of the head of a Faunus with animal ears. Sometimes it can be annoying for the Faunus, plus let's not forget Faunus ears actually have fur so people tend to avoid kissing them," shrugged Blake, not really seeing the point. "However, a human touching a Faunus's animal trait without permission, or even worse when the permission is denied, is extremely hated by the Faunus. Other Faunus can though, with the same limitations of a human touching another human. Not without permission, not in intimate spots, not roughly."

"I guess it's understandable for Faunus not to stand humans doing that," nodded Ironwood. "For decades before legal equality came to be, touching a Faunus's trait was a way to say they were animals. As if their animal trait was all that defined them. It was thus considered extremely offensive. I guess it's still seen as a bad action."

"I wasn't aware of its origins," noted Blake. "I guess that knowing that, it's unsurprising it's still a taboo."

 **"She'll be fine. Hurry up and open mine!" Ruby shouted as she appeared in front of him with a flurry of rose petals.**

 **Jaune chuckled and opened it and found a black dagger in a sheathe. He took it out and unsheathed it. It had nine-inch-long blade and was balanced enough to where he could throw it if he wanted. He tossed it into the air then caught it in a reverse grip and got into a stance. He looked down at it and grinned, "You made this, didn't you?" She nodded proudly and Jaune just looked it over again, "It's perfect, Ruby."**

"Kinda small though," noted Nora, squinting at the dagger. "That's just a secondary small weapon. Can't even be used to wield sword and dagger."

"Well, I guess it's fitting," laughed Yang. "So Lover Knight can put it in his pants, near the _other_ nine inches sword he's got."

"Y-YANG!" Jaune, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha all shouted, faces crimson.

"What? He didn't deny it," she teased even further.

Jaune got if possible even redder and looked away, but remained silent.

Yang's mouth fell open. "Wait, do you-"

"AHEM!" Goodwitch's quite annoyed throat-clearing froze her words before they could even exit her mouth. "Finish that sentence, Ms Xiao Long, and I'll be sure to come up with a detention so horrible your friends will need to see a therapist even just by _hearing_ about it."

Yang immediately shut her mouth, ran a hand across it, and made the gesture of locking and throwing away the key. "No problem Professor." And then she spoke right after locking her mouth.

 **She smiled, "I'm glad you agree. It took a long time to get it right."**

 **"Have you named it?"**

 **She shook her head, "No, I thought you'd like that honor."**

 **Jaune looked it and thought carefully, "I think I'll call her, Kuroibarra."**

 **Ruby looked confused before she turned to Ren with a raised eyebrow. "Black Rose."**

 **She turned back to Jaune, who nodded. "But why?" she asked.**

 **"Well, it's black and since you made it, it just feels right to name it similar to your weapon. They are like sisters and you are their mother in a way." He smiled and Ruby returned it.**

 **"So, are you saying that the dagger is you're love child?" Yang added teasingly and this caused Ruby to blush as red as her cloak. She quickly ran and hid her face into Jaune's chest.**

"Ugh, you and your teasing!" groaned Ruby. "It's so embarrassing to be your sister sometimes."

"Oh come on, I tease everyone, not just you!" A fly buzzed ahead in the silence that followed, and Yang had the decency to look ashamed as everyone stared at her in a deadpan. "Okay, that's not much better, but at least I don't single her out!"

 **Jaune returned Kuroibarra to its sheathe before he hugged her. "Thank you." Was all he said and she nodded into his chest. She then said something but it was muffled due to his hoodie. "I'm sorry, Ruby, but what?"**

 **She pulled back a bit and asked nervously, "Can I…. get a…kiss too?" She looked up at him.**

"HA!" shouted Sun.

 **Jaune looked over to Yang with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not gonna knock your block off this time, Hero." She said with a smile. Jaune nodded and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. She blushed even further to the point it looked like she was about to pass out.**

 **"You gonna be okay?" Jaune asked and she nodded before she walked away and fell onto the couch.**

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaand four!" yelled the monkey Faunus, much to Cinder's chagrin.

"Can't you at least keep it a little quiet!?" she hissed angrily.

"Of course I can't, I'm one kiss away from winning the bet and-mmmppphhh!" Sun was brusquely interrupted by the woman pressing a steaming hot kiss right on his open mouth. The gang couldn't be sure -and didn't want to be sure-, but their guess was that Cinder had also taken advantage of the fact Sun's mouth had been open to speak.

Fifteen full seconds of smooch later, Cinder detached her lips from the boy's with a wet pop, and he just slumped over, unconscious in shock. The fire temptress just smirked at them. "He might be 'teaching' me this stupid 'fluff' he blabs on about, but I _am_ a master of seduction, and he would do well not to forget that."

 **Jaune couldn't say anything before he felt something being pushed into his chest. He looked to see Weiss with her gift. Jaune took it before he looked at her. "Just open it." She said with a slight edge. Mostly from being nervous.**

 **Jaune did and what he found shocked him. In the box was a white belt with five groups of three clips for his swords arranged around it. Each three was a certain dust he used. He looked at Weiss in disbelief. "Is this why you looked through my blueprints?" he asked as he started to put it on.**

"Ha, I knew she'd have those built, I knew ever since she looked at the blueprints!" Nora yelled victoriously, taking Sun's place as the loud one until he could form a coherent sentence again.

 **She nodded, "I thought that with everything you've done for everyone, me included, it was the least I could do for you. The four spaces in between the clips are magnetized so you can hold additional items. Like your scroll and new dagger." She said with a small smile.**

 **Jaune had the belt on now and it felt right, for lack of a better word. The earth dust clips were on the left side of the buckle and the lightning dust was located on the right of the buckle. The water dust was on the middle of the left half of the belt and the wind dust was located in the same spot on the right. The fire dust was located on the back in the center. He looked at Weiss with and appreciative smile, "Thank you so much, Weiss."**

 **She looked away with a slight pink of her cheeks. "It was no problem. I have money to spare. Besides, it'll help you in battle and you won't run out of dust anymo-eep!" She squealed slightly as Jaune brought her into a surprise hug. She returned the hug after the shock but realized the others were watching and tried to push him away. "Stop this indecency at once, you dunce!" She yelled in embarrassment.**

"I'm guessing she'll receive a kiss too," sighed Ren. "I guess Sun was right… even if I have my doubts about the 'romance speaking to him'."

"Ye of little faith," snorted Qrow. "You don't need to mathematically prove something before you can say it exists. How do you think I find the pubs with good alcohol and hot waitresses?"

Ignoring Winter's and Goodwitch's -and Weiss's, Blake's, and Ruby's- disapproving kinda disgusted looks, he went on. "It's not because I know the area, it's because the alcohol and waitress hotness factor call to me before I even know they're there."

"Really?!" exclaimed Nora.

Qrow drank a sip from his flask and belched. "No."

 **"Nope!" Jaune said defiantly. "Not until this." He kissed her temple above her scar and she froze instantly. The pink on her cheeks turning bright red. Jaune let her go and turned to everyone. "Thanks guys. I couldn't have asked for better friends." He smiled brightly and they returned it. They spent the next hour or so just hanging out and talking. Along with eating the cake that Ren baked. Jaune was washing some of the dishes that they dirtied when he noticed another package on the counter. He dried his hands and went over to it. "Hey, guys? What's with this package?"**

 _"Aaaaaand five!"_ the houseowner's voice spoke up as the screen changed to a big pink 5 on a red background, with multicoloured confetti raining down around it before the number itself exploded in a cloud of confetti. The screen returned to normal before a veritable rain of heart-shaped chocolates covered Sun. _"And here is your prize, Sun! Also I really hope you don't go fall for Cinder just for that kiss, it'd end REALLY badly. Oh, why am I even talking, you're asleep…"_

"Does anyone else find it weird that Sun has just been covered in heart-shaped chocolates?" asked Ren.

"Nope, not weird. I just find myself envious," said Yang, licking her lips, with Ruby and Pyrrha agreeing. "Heart-shaped or not, that's still chocolate."

"Yes, and it's Mr Wukong's, students, so keep your hands for yourself," Goodwitch admonished them.

 **"We don't know. It was sitting outside our dorm room before we started decorating. It was addressed to you, so we decided to bring it with us." Pyrrha said.**

 **Jaune shrugged before he opened the plain brown cardboard box. On top of the paper hiding its contents was a note. He picked it up and read it:**

 **Hey Kid,**

 **I know you've been looking for these for a while now. I finally tracked them down and decided to send them as a surprise. She would've wanted you to have them.**

 **-Qrow**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow in confusion before he set the note aside and removed the paper from the box. He looked into the box and gasped. Ren and Nora went over to him and looked into the box and also gasped. The others turned and walked over to them. "What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked worried. They all looked into the box and saw two katanas; one black, the other white. They all knew who they belonged to.**

"Are those the weapons of their 'mother' and mentor?" asked Winter, trying to lean closer to get a better look and failing as that was a screen and not real life weapons.

Real life, ha.

"I think so," nodded Ozpin. "Though I wonder what do they do. Nowadays, all weapons must have some kind of trick or gimmick, or they are considered old antiquities, useless in a battle."

"Well, they're not wrong," noted Jaune. "New weapons are more resistant, and they can also be guns, and they usually have some other cool trick with Dust or whatever. I can understand why they liked them more."

"I like the classics too… even though Crescent Rose is all but a classic," Ruby mumbled, embarrassed.

"I know you do, but that's just the truth. New weapons are improvements from old weapons," shrugged Jaune.

 **Jaune slowly reached into the box with shaky hands, "Inkiri and Yokiri." He said as he slowly pulled them from the box. He had tears running down his face, a mix between sadness and joy. Ren and Nora also had small tears. "We could never find these swords after Mother's death. We never found out what happened to them. I can't believe we have them back." He said with a smile. Everyone smiled with him. He soon wiped his tears away and Ruby appeared next to him.**

 **"What do these do?" Ruby asked excitedly.**

 **Jaune smiled, "I'll tell you tomorrow, Ruby." Ruby started to whine but everyone was now back to cleaning up and getting ready to go to their dorms. Jaune was thinking the entire time that he was lucky to have people who cared for him so much.**

"That's weird, didn't she die in their arms? How comes her swords went missing?" asked Ironwood, puzzled. "Did someone steal them while they were fighting?"

"It's possible, old friend," conceded Ozpin.

"Okay, can we watch the next one immediately?" asked Ruby. "I really really want to see what those weapons do."

Blake sighed. "I'm fine with it, but let's at least wait for Sun to wake up."

Everyone quickly agreed to wait for the poor kissed-out monkey Faunus. It wasn't everyday one got mouth-raped like that, after all, and he would definitely need some time in lalaland before being ready to face reality once more.

 ** _Okay, wow, this was long and fun to write. The Sun x Cinder of this fic... honestly I'm not sure if I actually write it for fun, or if just continue to tease it without ever writing it. They wouldn't make for a good couple, but it would be a crackfic. Fluff vs sexiness, both romance experts. Who will win?_**

 ** _Sorry for my presence in this chapter, some stuff can't be explained in-story without a Writer popping in._**

 ** _Anyway, I'm too tired for writing a comment on this chapter. It was pretty fun, sure, but today I have only had 1 cup of coffee as opposite to the 2 coffees and 3.5 mugs of tea I usually get. I am perfectly serious. So yeah, it's Tireday for me._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	33. Chapter 32

**_Three days since last update. Huh, didn't expect this to be out so soon. Anyway, Happy Easter everybody! News about me, I'm still sick, but better. And with this, on with the chapter!_**

It took the blond Faunus over twenty minutes to come to his senses – not counting the five-seconds awakening he had before seeing Cinder and falling back asleep, of course. And when he finally did wake up, he blushed as red as his teammate's name and gave the dangerous woman a lot of space. So much he basically dragged himself to the other end of the rocky outcropping. Once he was safe and sound, and out of smooching range, he mustered all his courage. "You haven't seen the last of me! Fluff shall reign supreme!"

"Bring it on, Fluffy," snorted Cinder, flipping her hair back. "But now, let's watch this silly screen. Isn't that what Little Red wanted?"

"It's Ruby!" Said girl stuck her tongue out at her.

 _"Uhh… just wait a moment, Phoenix's dropping by for a visit,"_ the unfortunately familiar disembodied voice spoke up. None of them was happy to hear from the houseowner again, but a couple sat up straighter at the mention of Phoenix.

True to his words, a bright orange flame appearing in the middle of the 'Watching… Balcony?' and a few seconds later the usual hoodie-wearing brunette was standing among them. After the now-habitual round of hellos, Phoenix stretched a little and turned to a certain blue-haired boy.

The godlike Writer seemed to ponder on his words for a few short seconds before sighing quietly. "Okay, one of the reasons behind my visit, are you. After hearing all your envious grievances about the Swordsman, I'm here to… hopefully explain to you how he's not 'perfect at everything', Vasilias."

Neptune didn't need to think much, as opposite to him. "And how do you plan on denying the obvious?" he scoffed. "We all know what we saw. Even Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood agreed with me. Anything short of brainwashing isn't going to change my mind, Phoenix."

"Maybe, if you could stop being a jealous prick for once, that'd be a good start." Phoenix pursued his lips and began to pace around in a random path. "The Swordsman is skilled in combat and with his Semblance, no doubts about that. But that was because he had to control the latter, or risk causing untold damage. Can you imagine what would happen if someone with his kind of power lost control of it? I'll answer that: wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes. He could start any natural disaster you know of, and inevitably he'd have no way of stopping it."

"As I said before, I'm not criticizing that. His training regime must've been stuff of nightmares, but fine. It's everything else I cannot accept. How is he good at everything?!" the boy asked, annoyed, as he crossed his arms over his chest in a show of defiance.

"He isn't, blueberry dumbass." Phoenix sighed again, this time in frustration. "His training regime was intense because Gin didn't want her surrogate children to get in over their heads. So, she pushed them, but not all the time. She knew that being a Huntress or Huntsman wasn't everything, so she made sure they actually had some fun and lived their lives. He learned how to cook because it was an important skill to have and he had a knack for it. Baking, he learned because he had ten women in his life, and if you've ever lived with one, you'd know that most have a sweet tooth. He learned that to make them happy. But even still, he's not a gourmet chef… not even close, honestly."

"One, what the hell is a gourmet chef, and secondly, stop insulting me just because I'm stating my opinion! What I'm saying is that how the hell idd he have the time to learn all of that? We saw him fighting Pyrrha without using his Semblance, and then he defeated Kuro without using his weapons. I don't know Kuro, but Pyrrha is _very_ famous in our world, and I think that's the same in theirs. She is considered at the level of a graduated Huntress already, and Kuro had the same fame. How could he get that strong? Stronger than two worldwide-known celebrities for their power in the arena, while he was handicapped? How?"

"Because he had the drive to reach that level." Phoenix jerked his head toward Pyrrha. "She trained most of her life to get where she is, right? So did the Swordsman. Only difference is that he had time to live his life beyond that. He learned other things as well. People have different skills and talents, no two are the same. Ask Pyrrha: Jaune learned incredibly fast over the few months she has been training him. The only difference between this Jaune and the Swordsman is that he actually got training." Phoenix shrugged indifferently. "If your Jaune had training, who knows, I wouldn't really be shocked if he were to be at Pyrrha's level as well, or close to it. Why do you think Ozpin let him in with his clear lack of skill and fake transcripts? He saw that potential, and guessed what would happen if he tapped into it." The Writer sighed a third time, to calm down a little. "Besides, he isn't even the strongest person in his universe, or hell even in your own. Most Hunters could take him in a real fight."

"But that's the point. _Hunters_ , Phoenix, _Hunters_. People who have years or even decades of field experience in fighting, people who literally fight as their job. And Ozpin stated before that he allowed Jaune in because of his leadership skills, not because of hidden talent or whatever. But you know what irked me most about what you just said?" Neptune's glare got sharper. "When you said Pyrrha trained most of her life to get where she is, and so did the Swordsman. The Swordsman almost defeated Pyrrha while he couldn't use his Semblance, which makes up quite a bit of his combat prowess. So, are you telling me he gets better at twice the rate _Pyrrha freaking Nikos_ , worldwide known to be a prodigy, and also has other fields of expertise?"

Neptune uncrossed his arms and put up his hands. "Listen, if he were some guy with a backstory like, he lived in the literal Grimmlands and had to fight every single day to survive, I'd get he'd be twice as strong as Pyrrha, if not even more so. But from what we've seen, he lived, coddled and babied, for years with his family, and then he trained with this Gin woman – and while I don't doubt she never spared them from training, this means he got more or less the same training as Ren and Nora – who are _considerably_ weaker than Pyrrha, let alone _him_. He didn't have to fight for his life every day of his life, nor did he have access to high-quality tutoring and high-grade books and learning materials like Pyrrha did while she was in Sanctum. He can't possibly have gotten so good."

"But he did. Look, say what you want, say how unfair it all is but here's the greatest truth to the world. All worlds." Phoenix looked him straight in the eyes. "Life is never fair. Take it from someone who has seen that in his own world and across the multiverse." With a shrug, he continued, "Maybe the Swordsman always had more talent than his Pyrrha. There is always going to be someone stronger than you. Or faster. Or smarter. That is life. Get used to it. So, you can keep bitching to me, to everyone here, to the Gods that made Remnant. But that will do nothing for you. Or you can look at yourself in the mirror and recognize your flaws and improve on them. Just like Cardin did."

"Are you done?" Yang asked, annoyed, and was promptly ignored.

"Don't try to change the topic. We weren't talking about me, or about life's unfairness. You began this conversation by saying he had to train to gain control of his Semblance to avoid disasters, and you were stressing the point that the Swordsman trained a lot. You can't just back-pedal now because you've gotten stuck in a dead end, and call in life's unfairness!" Neptune snapped angrily.

Phoenix gave a cry of exasperation and summoned a cup of coffee. "It's like talking to a brick wall with you. He trained and got stronger and now he is one of the strongest Huntsmen-in-training in his world. What would you like me to say? It isn't _my_ fault that he is that strong. It isn't _my_ fault he has a very powerful semblance. And it isn't _my_ fault that no matter how angry, jealous or frustrated you are, I can't snap my fingers and change that fact." The Writer seemed to think about it as he took a sip of coffee. "Plus, if I'm being honest, I wouldn't do that even if I could."

"It's not talking to a brick wall if you actually gave me reasons!" the boy snapped again. "But all you've done has been repeating what we already knew. He trained, got stronger, and is not very strong. Newsflash, we knew as much already!" Sighing in exasperation, he rubbed his forehead. "Seriously, are you even listening to what you're saying? I ask you how, and you answer what."

"I'm answering your questions, they just aren't the answers you like. Every time he was training, he pushed himself as far as he could: physically, mentally and spiritually. It got to the point that Gin, Ren or Nora would have to stop him before he could hurt himself. That's the truth. He wanted to prove to his family that he wasn't the little boy who nearly died protecting his sisters. He wanted to follow his dream and so he pushed himself beyond what would be considered safe. What, do you think there is some secret to how he got strong? No. He worked for it like everyone else in this 'room'. Probably harder than anyone else. And on top of it all, he was fighting Grimm all the time with his Master, so unlike a lot of you he has real-life experience."

"I could understand him focusing so much on his training after Gin's death, but before?" Neptune raised a doubtful eyebrow. "No. He was just a child when he ran away. There is a reason why combat schools like Sanctum exist. Children need to be taught in a certain way, not just by letting them train whenever they wish. Without looking into the fact that I've never even _heard_ of a child being so focused on training, no sane person would ever allow such a young boy to train that much. So, he can't have really gotten that strong in such a short time after Gin's death."

"Did you forget he nearly saw his sisters die? Tell me the truth Neptune, have you ever had some almost or actually die in front of you?"

"Yes I did. Maybe you're not used to confronting versions of me who have, given your sour attitude towards me, but I did. She wasn't family, but she was a friend. For the authority, just another civilian casualty in a Grimm attack to the village we lived in. Didn't I already tell you that's the reason I flirt so much? Why I believe life's too short to waste time?" The boy's glare could've cut stone by that point. "I know people have different ways to cope with trauma, but I honestly? I don't think the Swordsman has a real reason to be that strong."

"Then you know that seeing something like that shakes you to the core. Especially, if you love them." The Writer summoned a flask and poured a bit of its content into his coffee before sipping it. "This Jaune nearly saw his sisters die. And if you decide to stay, you'll see just what effect it had on him. But that made the younger him realize how much pain that can cause someone. It almost happened to him and his family. It started small, like he didn't want his family to suffer like that. But as time went on, he wanted to make sure as many people wouldn't have to suffer like that. That's why he is so strong, chasing a dream that is impossible. And every time he loses someone, another part of him breaks and he becomes that much more desperate. That is why he keeps pushing. Trying to make the pain he knows disappear and to save people from that pain." Phoenix swirled his coffee before looking up at him again. "Doesn't matter if you don't think he should be that strong. He is. Nothing can change that. That's just something you have to accept."

Neptune chose not to reply to that. Maybe he agreed, maybe he didn't. Still not looking completely convinced, he at least sat down to see how the viewing would go on before drawing any further conclusion. Neither he nor Phoenix had won this round on the topic, but as sure as hell he'd make sure to be prepared if a second round were to happen.

Far, far, far, _far_ away from the group, the houseowner leaned back on his chair and pensively rubbed his chin. Maybe there was something he could do to help make people understand… while at the same time messing with them. A grin spread over his face. Yes, that would do.

Oblivious to the fate that would soon-ish befall them, the group finally settled down to watch the next viewing.

 **Darkness. That's what was around Jaune. No matter how hard he tried, his eyes couldn't penetrate the blackness around him. Next thing he knew, there were dozens of red eyes just staring at him. The Grimm started to charge from the suffocating darkness around him. He started carving through them, one after the other. Using his aura and dust to their full capabilities. He started hearing a voice, echoing over and over. The owner of the voice sounded scared and in pain. Jaune pushed further and further, killing Grimm faster and started running towards the voice. The voice started to sound closer but he had to keep fighting through the endless Grimm. He finally recognized the voice and panicked, he started to run faster, fight more ferociously. The voice was just outside of his vision, when he heard a blood curdling scream and he felt like his blood had frozen in his veins. He walked forward and saw her, his master and second mother, dead. He pulled her close and started to cry as the Grimm surrounded them. An Alpha Beowolf lunged forward and sank its teeth into his throat.**

 **Jaune woke with a start. He sat up and quickly looked around, he calmed slightly when he saw he was in his team's dorm. He placed his hand over his eyes and tried to calm his ragged breathing. He realized that he was also covered in sweat. Once his breathing was under control, he checked his scroll for the time and found it was 6:30. He grabbed his clothes for the day and entered the bathroom. He splashed some cold water on his face as he waited for the shower to heat up. He showered and kept his head under the water for a few minutes after he was clean, trying to calm himself more.**

Wordlessly, Phoenix glanced at Neptune, taking his usual 'told you so' look and turning it up to the power of eleven.

"Oh. It was just a dream," Ruby sighed, relieved. Though to be honest, everyone had kind of clued in on that at the very start of the nightmare.

 **He got dress and left the bathroom and wasn't surprised to see his teammates were still sleeping. He quietly went to his desk, where all his gifts from the previous day were. He put the necklace back around his neck and tucked it under his shirt before grabbing his rerebrace and Kuroibarra to put in his locker. He quietly left his room and made his way to the locker room. He placed his rerebrace with the rest of his armor and Kuroibarra in its sheathe next to his swords. As he made his way back to his dorm, he stopped by the common room to get some coffee. He made a pot and found a few cinnamon rolls in the cabinets. He took two of them and ate one while waiting for his coffee to be done. He poured himself a mug before leaving, sipping it as he made his way back to his dorm.**

"He could keep the knife on his person," noted Blake. "It can be easily hidden under the clothing, and it's not like a simple knife would make such a difference in a place full of skilled Aura-using fighters. Besides, he'd not be the first to have an extra accessory, like Ruby's cape."

"Yes, but weapons are prohibited while donning the Beacon uniform because of etiquette, Ms Belladonna," Goodwitch explained stiffly, still slightly peeved at Ozpin for allowing Ruby to keep her cape. "While I know most of you sleep right through any academic class, only waking up for Combat Class, I'd have thought you'd know at least the basics rules of etiquette."

"Well, James has a big ass handcannon under his suit," Qrow pointed out.

"This is my combat gear, Qrow. I had no weapon with me at the Beacon dance," the General replied, a bit exasperated. It was clear that wasn't the first time they had that discussion. "Just because I do not choose to wear fancy and exotic outfits, it does not mean I lack a combat outfit."

 **When he got back, he saw that Nora was up and was about to shout a good morning to him. He quickly placed his finger over his lips and pulled out the other cinnamon roll he got from the common room. Her eyes went wide and she nodded. Jaune smiled and gave her the roll. She bit into it with a big smile and Jaune could only smile and ruffle her hair. He then placed his mug of coffee on his desk before he grabbed his new hoodie. He put it on a hanger before placing it in his closet right next to his new clothes he got from Velvet and Coco. He decided to wear them at the same time because it looked like a decent outfit.**

"Though hoodies aren't exactly fashionable or formal," chuckled Yang.

Phoenix shrugged. "Not everyone likes to have flashy or weird outfits like you girls. Besides, the world isn't a battlefield – there is not need to always wear your combat clothes. Some sets of casual wear that's not a cheap rip-off of your usual combat gear is always useful."

"Yeah, but fighting in a hoodie?" Yang snorted. "That just has no style."

"Hey!"

"Ms Xiao Long, fighting Grimm does not require 'style'. Only those Hunters who desire fame and glory over the good of the people prioritize style over efficiency," Ozpin scolded with an added low blow, making her deflate and frown.

 **He sat down at his desk and moved his new belt to the side and put his new gloves in front of him. He took out his old gloves and placed them next to the new ones. He then took out some of his tools from his desk and began the task of removing the metal rings from his old gloves to install them to the new ones.**

 **He took his time doing this and enjoyed his coffee while doing it. Soon all of his team was up and ready for the day. They were all relaxing in the room while they left Jaune to his work. He just finished moving all the sensors from his left gloves and was starting to work on his right glove when there was a knock on their door. "Would one of you get that? Kinda have my hands full." Jaune asked.**

"Is that a pun?" Yang asked, hopeful.

"No it isn't," Jaune deadpanned. "Stop looking for puns from others, Yang. We never pun."

"Now that's just punful," pouted the girl, immediately booed by her teammates. "Oh come on! It wasn't even _that_ bad!"

"It's not the pun, it's your insistence at making them what gets on our nerves," grumbled Weiss.

 **Pyrrha went to open the door to find RWBY standing there. "Good morning." She said cheerily.**

 **"Morning, Pyrrha. Is Jaune around?" Ruby asked.**

 **Jaune leant back in his chair to see them, "Yup. What's up?"**

 **"You said you'd tell us what those swords did today!" Ruby said excitedly.**

"Jeez, next day isn't next early morning," grumbled Jaune. "It must be seven-something if Pyrrha got up not too long ago, even on a non-school day she gets up at six thirty top."

"But we've already seen how this Pyrrha wakes up quite late in comparison," Ren was quick to reply. "It could even be close to noon on a Sunday."

"So I'm allowed to ask you to show us what those weapons do!" grinned Ruby.

 **Jaune sighed with a smile, "I know and I will a bit later. I'm installing the sensors onto the new gloves. I'm just starting on the second glove, should only be another 30 minutes or so."**

 **"That long?" Yang asked.**

 **Jaune raised an eyebrow, "Considering if I screw up it will stop me from using my swords, yeah. I'd rather take my time with it." He turned back to his work. "If you wanna stay here, I'm cool with it. We're like a big happy family anyways."**

Neptune glanced toward Phoenix. "Right, weapon smithing too?"

Phoenix's look was a deadpan before looking at Jaune. "Hey, Jaune, do you think you could disassemble and rebuild Crescent Rose?"

The boy shrugged. "Sure. Ruby showed me so many times I think I'm starting to see it in my dreams sometimes."

Phoenix snorted a chuckle before turning back to the blue-haired boy. "See? It's not about being a weapon smith – that'd require you to know how to work with more or less any weapon. He's just familiar with his weapons because he's seen them being worked on many times, and eventually learned. That's one of the reasons why he never made those Dust clips for his swords – he had never done something like that, he didn't want to mess it up and couldn't afford a professional work."

"Hmph. Fair enough."

 **He started working on his glove again as RWBY entered the room. Blake sat down on Jaune's bed and started reading a novel. Weiss sat at the end of the same bed and started filing her nails. Yang started to talk to Pyrrha about something but Jaune decided to not listen in, since it wasn't his business. He just got done installing the second sensor when he felt like someone was standing behind him. He turned to see Ruby standing behind him looking over his shoulder with a smile. "Ruby."**

 **"Yes, Jaune?" she said with a smile.**

 **"Why are you watching me work?" he asked curiously.**

 **"I rarely get to see you work like this, it's cool seeing you do it." She looked away sheepishly, "Am I annoying you?"**

 **He just rolled his eyes playfully and smiled, "No, Rosebud, was just curious." He turned back around and kept working. "Maybe if you learn enough about my weapons I'll let you help me tune them up on occasions." He snuck a peak over his shoulder to see her wide eyed and he smirked.**

"Exactly how he learned in the first place," Phoenix pointed out. "Though Ruby already is far more knowledgeable than him in that field."

 **"Do you mean that, Jaune?" She asked.**

 **"As long as you don't try to add anything when I'm not paying attention, yes I am."**

 **He then felt her wrap her arms around his neck and gently lay her head on top of his, "You're the best friend I've ever had." She said happily.**

Ruby grinned happily. "Yeah, and don't forget that!"

"How could I forget that when you're shouting it in my ear?" Jaune asked with a wince. Ruby blushed in embarrassment. "Don't worry, seven sister made me yell-resistant. That, or half-deaf."

"I wouldn't say you're deaf, Jaune," Pyrrha reassured him. "I'm sure it's the former."

 **Jaune smiled and gently rubbed her head, "Same goes for me, Ruby."**

 **"Hey, what about me!?" Nora shouted as she was jumping on her bed.**

 **Without turning around, he answered her, "Nora, you are practically my sister, you're in a category all on your own."**

"That's true, siblings are different," nodded Jaune, very knowledgeable on the subject. "Though not always _closer_ than friends. You guys are closer to me than some of my sisters. The ones who moved out already, I mean."

"I… can't say I share that feeling," admitted Weiss, looking at her older sister. "Winter has always been my most cherished person, sibling or friend."

"Thank you Weiss," Winter nodded in acknowledgement. "It means a lot to me."

 **"Yay!" she shouted as she did a backflip while still jumping on her bed.**

 **For the rest of the time Jaune was working on his gloves, Ruby was right there silently watching him work while she hugged him and rested her chin on his shoulder. Jaune didn't mind at all. Ruby was someone he had a strong bond with. Considering they had the same dream, were both team leaders and were allowed into Beacon by Ozpin personally, why wouldn't they? Some people thought that their relationship went beyond just friendship but that wasn't the case. Wasn't it? He honestly never thought of Ruby like that but that didn't mean he didn't see all of her great qualities.**

"Come on you dummy!" Ruby exclaimed, exasperated. "Just admit it, turn, and kiss me!"

Everyone glanced at their own Jaune, but much to their disappointment, he didn't turn and kiss her, as he was busy chuckling at Ruby's adorable anger. "Cheer up, Ruby, I'm sure he's gonna dense down one day and admit his feelings for your other self."

"Jeez, now I feel how P-… I mean… Now I'm glad you aren't that dense," Ruby almost revealed the secret before hastily correcting herself.

'Nice save,' Yang mouthed her.

 **"You okay, Jaune?" Ruby asked and he turned his head to her. They both realized that their faces were very close to each other.**

 **"I'm fine. Why, Ruby?" He asked.**

 **"You've been staring off for a while." She said and he could feel her breath on his lips and she could feel his breath on her's. The two just looked into each other's eyes for a while. They may have kissed if not for a certain blonde brawler.**

 **"Jaune, are you trying to kiss my sister, again?" she said while standing behind Jaune.**

"Damn you Yang!" Sun shouted from his corner far away from Cinder. "I get you're jealous as all hell and I get you fear your younger sis could get herself the guy you've been pining for since Initiation or something, but come on you're denying me all my fluff!"

"Hey, don't take it out on _me_!" the other blonde replied. "Besides, there's enough fluff between me and Blake already!"

"Blasphemy! There's never enough fluff!" Cinder yelled angrily, standing up with literal fire in her eyes – and hands. Immediately after, her eyes widened like dinner plates and she sank back down in shock, the sheer gravity of her action slowly dawning on her. "Oh no… oh no… _oh no_ …"

" _Oh yes!_ " Sun pumped a fist in the air. "I did it! I purified your soul with fluff!"

"No… no… _no…_ "

 **Ruby blushed and buried her face into his shoulder while Jaune looked over his other shoulder at her. "If I remember right, it was you that caused us to kiss in the first place, Yang."**

 **"That was an accident and you know it. That doesn't mean you get to kiss her again." She said a mix of annoyance and possible jealousy.**

 **Jaune just shrugged and turned back to his work. "You've got nothing to worry about. The only time I'd ever kiss Ruby is if she asked me to." He said this and felt Ruby tighten her grip slightly and he just finished with his last sensor. "And with that I'm done. So, who's ready to see what Mother's swords can do?"**

 **Everyone in the room agreed. So Jaune went over to his closet, where he left them. He attached both to his belt on his left hip and lead the others out of the dorms. They went outside and he stepped away from everyone else before speaking, "Okay. Who wants to be my opponent?" he asked and immediately Yang stepped forward.**

 **"You're looking at her, Hero." She said with a smile as Ember Celica encased her arms. She soon got into her boxer stance.**

"Is that gonna be payback for almost kissing Ruby?" Jaune asked, not really keen on seeing his other self being on the receiving end of Yang's punches.

"Probably not, I just always enjoy having a good fight," shrugged Yang, not nearly as worried.

"That's such a bummer!" Nora pouted angrily. "I want to fight too, but if other-Jaune-Jaune keeps taking all the fights for himself, all I'll have left for me will be a couple of Beowolves pups after he took out all the big ones, and then the rest had to split between all of us."

"Nora," Ren simply said, gaining her attention. "I'm sure we'll find someone or something for you to fight in this stronghold. It's huge beyond imagination, it's possible there are some opponents for you as well."

"Oh, I'm sure there are," nodded Phoenix. "You never know what Khor hides around, but it usually has claws, teeth, sharp spikes and a willingness to fight anything in its sight. Just don't kill any dragon or he'll be upset – and given the fact you are all in a realm of his own creation, upsetting him might end up with you being locked in a room barely larger than your dorm, not allowed to wander any more, for hours and hours on end."

"That doesn't sound too bad," shrugged Ruby. "We'd be all among friends!"

"That sounds horrible beyond definition," Weiss stated dully, shivering as her eyes looked into the void.

 **Jaune returned her smile. "You asked for it, Sun Fire." He also got into his stance, but everyone noticed it was slightly different. His legs were apart as usual but his left hand was holding onto the white katana's sheathe while his right hand was holding the handle but made no sign he was going to draw it. "Ren?" he asked.**

Ozpin sighed. "That's not a proper stance for Iaidō. He's trying to emulate it, but he's instead using a single-edge sword stance while wielding two katanas. He'd need to be crouching a little bit lower."

"Is there a difference between single-edged blade and double-edged stances?" Nora asked, frowning. Given how she used a hammer, and she learned how to fight outside of combat schools, no one who knew her was surprised she didn't know the difference. Add to that the fact the other students also didn't really know aside from Pyrrha, and the situation was the perfect chance for an explanation.

"Of course it's different. But only certain stances, as you cannot use the back edge, so you need to keep your sword angled in a different way," Ozpin explained shortly. "Without time nor space to show you, it is hard to make you understand. I will illustrate my point after the viewing."

"How did you know he's trying to use Iaidō?" asked Pyrrha, surprised – though she shouldn't have been, as she too had noticed, and she was distinctly less trained and less experienced than any Hunter in the room.

"He's not drawing his weapon. While this is common in more than one martial art, Iaidō is the most known for this very characteristic. So I guess he's trying to use Iaidō despite not being sure," explained Ozpin. "He just remembers his 'mother' fighting style, and guessed it was Iaidō, and so he's trying to mimic it. Am I right, Phoenix?"

"Bullseye," nodded the Writer.

 **Ren stepped forward and held out a coin between his fingers, "When it hits the ground, it'll signal the start of the fight." They both nodded and Ren flipped the coin into the air. It stayed in the air for a few second and as soon as it hit the ground, the two shot off at each other.**

"Uh, I was half-expecting Pyrrha here to keep it in the air for longer," commented Yang. "I know I'd surely do it if I had her Semblance."

"Pranking others is important, but sometimes it's best if no one intervenes," Nora nodded solemnly. "That, and we'd notice if Pyrrha did something since we know her Semblance."

"And besides, she has nothing to gain from keeping a coin in the air longer, especially not when this fight is a demonstration of the katanas' abilities," interjected Weiss, checking her nails obnoxiously before smirking at the others. "If anything, you should be worried about her aiding the Swordsman during the fight."

 **Yang had her fist pulled back for a punch but Jaune still didn't have his sword drawn. Next thing, he drew the sword so quick that Yang barely saw it. She brought up her other gauntlet to block the sword but was sent flying back. She landed and was stunned. She barely had time to react to the blade because of how fast he drew it and the force behind the hit was similar to when he used his Semblance. She looked at his eyes but they were his usual blue. She looked at the sword now and it looked like a regular katana except it had a black line running up the middle of the blade.**

"Whoa, that's a lot of force if it sent Yang back," whistled Sun, eyes wide. "I've sparred with her and she's immovable! The only thing that can throw her off is Nora's weapon!"

"However, she is fighting weapons she knows nothing about, and wasn't expecting such strength," Winter countered easily. "Currently, she is at huge disadvantage. The Swordsman knows of his weapons, she does not. I will be surprised if she manages to land a single hit on him."

"You really think that little of me?!" Yang exclaimed, more than a little peeved at the comment.

"Yang, anyone would be at disadvantage during such a fight. He has tricks up his sleeve you don't know about. Plus, a single moment of surprise can usually end a fight for good, even with Aura," explained Qrow, now definitely more sober since his flask had run out, and no alcohol had appear when he had asked for it – something he'd definitely have to ask Phoenix about later. "Also, you're a one-style fighter, firecracker. You cannot adapt to different enemies, and that makes you very predictable. In this case, you're fighting him as if he were using his normal fighting style, instead of adapting against a quick-draw style."

"Still, not even _one_ hit?" Yang scoffed. "That's just lack of faith."

 **Deciding to test the waters, she fired three shots at Jaune. He knocked them away with his sword before sheathing it again and charging at her with the use of his aura. Yang went to punch him but he intercepted it by drawing his sword again. The blade connected with her gauntlet again but she was ready for the force behind it. When they were still connected, she went for a left hook. Jaune ducked under it and slipped to her left to try to catch her in the side. She brought her arm to block the sword but was shocked to feel that his swing had twice the force of the first. Jaune took a step back before spinning clockwise to slice her across the chest but Yang crossed her arms to block but she was sent sliding backwards. 'That was triple the force of his first swing!' she thought in shock.**

"And that's why not getting hit at all is better than tanking with your Aura," Blake commented with a smirk at the blonde brawler.

"Easy to say for the girl whose Semblance lets her dodge virtually any blow," grumbled Yang. "But still, by now I'll have learned! The strength increases at every slash!"

"Then why the second swing was as strong as the first?" Jaune asked her.

"Uhh…"

 **She noticed the shadow below her and looked up to see Jaune coming down with his sword above his head. She barrel rolled out of the way and Jaune's blade hit the ground and created a huge crater. She had to punch away some of the debris that came her way. When the dust cleared, they all saw Jaune standing in the center of the crater with the katana resting on his shoulder. He looked at Yang with a smirk before motioned for her to bring it on. Yang used both her gauntlets to fire off shots to charge at him. He waited until she was right on top of him before he used both hands to bring his sword in a downward arc. The blade caught the top of her forearm and sent he smashing into the ground. Which should have been impossible considering how short the swing was. Jaune quickly sheathed and drew the katana before he was bringing it down on top of her. She luckily brought up her arm to block it and realized the force behind it was way lower, before hitting him with an upper cut.**

"See? I hit him," Yang grinned proudly.

"It seems that sheathing the katana resets its strengthening ability," commented Ironwood, intrigued. "Though I guess it also gets increasingly heavier to wield."

"Spot on," nodded Phoenix. "Just wait until after the fight and he'll tell everyone about them."

 **Jaune flipped and landed on his feet. He looked to see Yang standing there using her Semblance. Jaune sheathed his white sword before placing his hand on the black one and waited with his eyes closed. Yang didn't hesitate to charge him. Jaune quickly drew the black sword and a blinding flash of light was produced. Yang was temporarily blinded and missed her punch. She stopped and while she was still blinded, felt the blunt side of Jaune's sword against her neck. "I think I win, Yang."**

"Smartass," grumbled Yang, not feeling proud any more.

"Come on, Yang, you can't expect to win every battle," scoffed Weiss, fed up with the blonde's ego – even though if she were in the same position, she'd probably feel just like her.

 **She just sighed and opened her eyes. She could now see and there was Jaune with his usual smile. "Yeah. You do." she conceded the point.**

 **Jaune sheathed his sword and everyone came running towards them. Ruby ran and jumped onto Jaune, almost causing him to fall over. "That was amazing, Jaune! How'd you do that?"**

 **Jaune chuckled before he let her go. She gently landed on the ground before he drew his black sword. Everyone went to shield their eyes besides Ren and Nora. They were confused when no light was created. It looked identical to the other except the handle was black and it had a white line running down the middle of the blade. "This is Inkiri. The Yin Cutter. It has a special white dust in the center of the blade. When drawn fast enough, it releases a blinding light to create distractions or openings."**

"So their 'mother' did use Iaidō," noted Pyrrha. "Though if her weapons needed to be drawn regularly to be effective, how could she fight hordes of Grimm?"

"Using Inkiri," shrugged Phoenix. "True, it does not flashbang anyone if it's not drawn fast, but it does not get heavier with each swing. And believe me, dual wielding with katanas if more or less of a death wish, especially if one gets heavier as you fight. So she had to fight with one either way."

"That makes sense," nodded the redhead. "Thanks."

 **Everyone looked at it before Ruby asked, "Yin Cutter?"**

 **Ren spoke up, "Yin refers to the darkness that exists inside of oneself. Mother Gin named it such to poetically mean, the sword to cut through the darkness."**

 **"While I named my swords to be more dead on, Mother preferred to be more metaphorical." Jaune added.**

"Well, better than us – we just named them however we wanted," snorted Yang.

"She's not wrong…" Weiss admitted, not elated by having to agree with Yang Xiao Long of all people.

 **"What about the other one? You were somehow creating massive amounts of force from that thing." Yang asked.**

 **Jaune quickly sheathed it and drew the white katana. "That would be Yokiri. The Yang Cutter. It has gravity dust running through the center. When it is drawn, it activates the dust and allows for the force behind each swing to increase with each impact. Although it gets heavier to swing each time. The only way to reset it is to sheath and redraw it."**

"You guessed it right, General," Phoenix conceded briefly. "That's definitely not a weapon for continued fighting – unless you're Nora on electricity, of course."

"That'd be so awesome," grinned said hammer-wielder.

"That'd be so scary," mumbled Ren, shaking his head.

 **"That's why it was feeling like it was getting stronger. Wow. It's named the Yang Cutter and it has an ability similar to my Semblance. If that's not pun worthy, I don't know what is." She said with a smirk.**

 **Jaune chuckled slightly, "Yang, in this case, refers to the light within oneself. It's a metaphor for, the sword that cuts through the light. Makes sense, since gravity is one of the few things that can effect light."**

"It can?" asked Jaune.

"Of course it can. Light is made of photons, and gravity attracts those photons just like everything else – sometimes deviating it or absorbing it, like in the case of black holes," explained Phoenix before receiving looks from everyone else. "Sorry, I forgot Remnant never went into space. Black holes are dead supergiant stars which, upon 'dying', collapse into a hyper-dense m-"

"Okay okay okay," Jaune put his hands up. "I understood nothing and maybe it's better that way. I don't know what a supergiant is or how can a star die, but whatever. Gravity can affect light. Perfect. That's all I needed."

"I'd be interested in hearing more about the outer space, if you will, Phoenix," commented Ironwood. "Despite our best efforts, Dust cannot work beyond the stratosphere – and that makes our knowledge limited to observation from here."

"Sure. Just don't be surprised if you have a hard time understanding everything. What for me is common knowledge, for you it must be revolutionary discoveries," shrugged the Writer.

 **"And here I was thinking I was special." Yang responded with a mock hurt tone.**

 **Jaune just sheathed Yokiri before walking up to her and gently taking her hand. "You are special, Yang." He said with a smile. Yang blushed slightly at that. It was a cute moment, until Ruby got behind Yang and used her Semblance to push her into Jaune causing them to fall over. The two landed with Yang on top of Jaune and the two ended up accidentally kissing. The two stared at each other wide eyed.**

"Oh come on!" shouted Neptune. "Since when people who fall on each other end up kissing?! What is this, a comic?!"

Everyone looked at Phoenix, expecting him to retort something, but the man seemed content with avoiding their gazes. "Well… it's not a _comic…_ "

 **Ruby was off to the side and was grinning evilly. "I told you I'd get even, Yang." Although the wind was taken out of her sails as Yang closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him close, deepening the kiss. Jaune was just stunned and had no idea on what to do. He wanted to return the kiss with as much love but he just couldn't bring himself to do it, considering his feelings for Blake and Pyrrha. The kiss was finally broken when Blake and Pyrrha pulled Yang off of Jaune. Weiss and Ruby helped him up, with Ruby apologizing repeatedly. Meanwhile, Ren was just smirking and Nora was rolling on the ground laughing like a madwoman.**

"Thanks sis," grinned Yang. Ruby blew her a raspberry in pettiness.

"Your plan backfired," smirked Weiss, enjoying Ruby's frustration. "Maybe you should've crashed into him yourself."

"Shut up!" the reaper snapped, pouting angrily. Everyone laughed, much to her chagrin.

"You're so precious, sis," chuckled Yang, ruffling her hair.

 **After a while, everyone calmed down and they made their way back to the dorms. Ruby decided to try to break the tension. "So, are you gonna start using these swords as well, Jaune?"**

 **Jaune thought about it for a while, "I don't think so. They don't exactly follow my usual fighting style. I may only use them when the situation calls for it."**

 **"That's a shame. They are really impressive weapons." Weiss stated.**

 **"Couldn't you try to adjust them like you did with your other swords?" Blake offered.**

 **Jaune shook his head, "Not really. I designed my swords, so that I could improve them over time. Mother made her swords to fit her fighting style. The only way for me to adjust them would be to completely reforge them." He ran his hand through his hair, "I'm not really comfortable with doing that though. I'd rather keep them like this, as a way to carry on her will." Everyone smiled at that. They spent the rest of the day hanging out and enjoying one of the last days of their break. The next semester was just around the corner and they had no idea what was in store for them.**

"Jeez, that's ominous," noted Sun. "It basically told us trouble's gonna arise…"

"Well, it is going to rise," shrugged Phoenix, summoning a cup of coffee and sipping it slowly. "It's no secret at all. Are you saying that, with all the shenanigans you went through so far which still aren't half of what the future has in store for you, you could call your lives normal, peaceful, and tranquil?"

"No, definitely not," grumbled Weiss, glowering at Blake – who was usually the source of their problems, with her obsession with the White Fang.

"Exactly," the Write shrugged again. "With you guys, I've yet to see a single universe where something doesn't happen. Even when everything's peaceful, something must come up. And half the time, no more than half, the fault's yours even though you were trying to do some good."

"I told you you shouldn't let children handle situations like that," Ironwood mumbled to Ozpin.

"It all worked out fine in the end, didn't it?" the Headmaster replied smugly.

"Not because of you."

"Anyway, before I go, there are two things. One, I suggest you all say goodbye to Helios, because he will have to come with me." As protests rose, the man put up his hands. "I already told you he wouldn't be able to stay forever, and if he tried he'd die. Good news are, I'll be leaving a kitty to stay with you this time. Helios is not my only companion."

"A kitty?" Blake repeated with glee. Finally that blasted hellspawn would be going away, and maybe Zwei would be too busy chasing the new cat to chase her!

"More or less," conceded Phoenix. "She's a female, and her name is Sable. She'll be very friendly though – just not with Cinder, and she might not like Ironwood either. She'll make up for Helios, I swear."

There were long and teary goodbyes -not from Blake though- and Helios too seemed genuinely sad at leaving them. He didn't even bark at Neptune, and that was saying everything. Alas, he had to go. Preceding Phoenix, he disappeared in a bout of orange flames.

"And now, Sable," nodded Phoenix as flames surrounded him as well. "I'll leave her with you. Take care of her!"

He disappeared as well, and in his place, the 'kitty' Sable appeared.

Everyone recoiled in shock and fright.

True, she was a feline. That was where the similarities ended. A large bluish-furred tiger with black stripes now lazily laid on the ground where Phoenix had disappeared. It wasn't huge for a tiger, though it definitely looked large to them, the body alone eight feet long, with another two or three feet of tail. Her azure eyes swept over them with almost lethargy, a characteristic typical of cats. Two details stood out the most. One was a diagonal scar running over her nose, while the other was Phoenix's black symbol on her shoulder, as if the fur had been coloured like that naturally.

Swallowing her fear, Yang was the first to speak. "Uh… hi?"

 ** _So, Helios has to go and Sable remains. We'll see how this will change things. Also little Neptune/Phoenix argument, I'm remaining neutral on this (wow, I know)._**

 ** _And... Extension is next... I kinda don't have anything to say about this... Ugh! The stories I want to write are always the ones not next on my list._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	34. Chapter 33

The large bluish-tinted tiger stretched slowly, much like a cat, before regarding them all lazily. Again, like a cat. Slowly but gracefully in a way only a 400 lb feline could manage, she moved towards the back of the balcony, laying down to bask in the comfortable heat coming from the edge, all the while looking at them majestically. Once she was comfortable, she laid her head on her paws and yawned widely, exposing her long teeth – way too long for their liking. Then, she stilled, still staring at them.

"I… I'm guessing you're Sable, right?" Yang spoke up nervously, earning a slow nod from the tiger.

"Is it safe to have her around?" asked Jaune, more than a little anxious. True, swans were usually not prey for tigers due to living in different areas and all, but still he didn't like to have such a huge cat looking at him like that, with him being part-bird and all.

"I'm sure Mr Phoenix wouldn't have left her with us, hadn't she been completely harmless," Ozpin reassured everyone just before a growl was heard around them, making them startle.

The tiger had raised her head and was staring at him with a snarl. Clearly, she'd heard him and hadn't liked his words.

"Okay, well, I suggest we don't comment on the tiger any more and we just get on with the viewing," offered Neptune, staring at the huge feline. "I mean, Phoenix wouldn't leave us with something that wants to hurt us, and it already settled, so why waste time?"

"I agree with Neptune, we shouldn't think about this… Sable… too much," nodded Ren. "I mean, we've seen Phoenix burst into flames, we have an insane houseowner, Helios could become a dragon and spit fire, there's a magically-enhanced fountain over there, and we're watching another universe – I don't think a big tiger can top all of that."

"I agree wholeheartedly – this isn't by far the strangest thing that's ever happened to you." An unknown voice made them all startle, again, and turn to look at the newcomer.

And they promptly had a heart attack.

A huge, and by that they meant _gargantuan_ , green and blue dragon was hovering in the air above the crater. Only the glow of the lava below had prevented his shadow from falling over them, hence why no one had notice him sooner. Its head had several horns crowning it, and a hard ridge of bone ran down its neck. Unlike Helios's dragon form, this dragon had armour on its chest and belly as well, though it was obviously weaker than the fierce plates that covered its limbs, head, tail and what little of its back they could see. Each limb ended with a five-finger claw, each larger than a person. Its wingspan was at least three hundreds feet wide, basically twice as much as the dragon's length without considering the fifty feet long tail. A shower of black scales ran down its neck, sparkling in the light of the – what? Sun? Moon? They didn't know how it worked in that dimension.

With a rumbling chuckle, the dragon bomb-dived into the crater, folding its wings against its body, and reached the balcony they were on in a few seconds, opening his wings at the last second to stop itself. The resulting displaced air knocked them all flat on their butts, and the blinding aquamarine flash didn't help in the slightest.

Once they could all see properly again, the dragon had disappeared, and instead a person was staring back at them.

He wasn't very tall, about Blake's height, and he obviously wasn't a Hunter. He was very lean, almost skinny, but he looked in good health and lacked any sign of being underweight. He was wearing a plain red t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, not unlike the ones Jaune used to wear before receiving his new outfit as gift, and dark grey tennis shoes with red shoelaces. His nape-length hair was jet black, but his most peculiar feature were his dichromatic eyes, one sparkly azure and the other lustrous green.

"Who are you?" Weiss asked slowly as the stranger walked closer.

"Oh, where are my manners. My name is Azndrgn, it's a pleasure to meet you," he bowed his head in greeting. "Don't worry about introducing yourselves, I already know your names. As some of you might've guessed, I'm a Writer just like Phoenix and Khor."

"You're another friend of the houseowner?" Blake asked. If that was the case, she'd have to be extra careful around him.

"Not exactly. Khor and I don't really talk much. I am a friend of Phoenix's, though, who is in turn Khor's friend. As for why I'm here, a question I'm sure you were about to ask…" He shrugged and gestured at the screen. "It all comes down to that, really. During this viewing, Jaune will hint at one of the worlds I document. Whether it's a coincidence or not, I don't know, but I thought it'd be nice to let you know how alternative universes can influence non-Writers too. You just don't realize it."

"How did you do that thing with the dragon early can you show me can you can you can you?!" Faster than the eye could blink, Nora was in front of the man, pulling at his hand like a child.

The newly named Azndrgn chuckled. "I could, but I think they've had enough already. You'll see it again at the end of the viewing. As for how – well, I'm a Writer. There are few things I can't do."

"Did you _have_ to do that?" grumbled Ironwood, dusting himself off after being thrown off his pillow-seat.

"Of course I had to. Hadn't I done that, I could've altered this timeline, creating a distortion in the time-space continuum, and possibly launching all of you in a dimensional warp, which would kill you in the best of cases." He managed to maintain a serious expression for a grand total of fifteen seconds of utter silence before he cracked a grin. "Also, I knew your looks would've been priceless."

"That settles it, you're a friend of Khor's," sighed Blake.

"Many Writers like to be flashy, or to surprise non-Writers. Phoenix, Khor and I are just three of those Writers." His grin widened. "Besides, are you telling me you wouldn't do something like that, had you the power to do so?"

The adults sighed and shook their heads in exasperation as the students looked at one another guiltily. After all, being flashy and all was basically a requirement to be a Hunter, so it wasn't all that surprising.

"Thought so," nodded the man before sitting cross-legged on the ground. "Now, we have a viewing to watch, don't we?"

 **It was the night before the first day of the second semester and Jaune had awoken from another nightmare. Since the day he received Gin's swords, he'd been having the same nightmare over and over. This one was different though, it wasn't just Gin he found dead but Ren and Nora as well. Jaune had his hand over his eyes trying to calm his breathing as he was sitting up in his bed. He checked his scroll and saw it was only 1:30. He sighed and decided to go for a walk to try and calm himself.**

"Bad idea, nighttime walks wake you up like nothing else," Winter sighed. "He just erased all chances of being able to sleep later."

"Speak for yourself," replied Cinder. "I always take walks when I can't sleep."

"I never have trouble sleeping," shrugged Ren. Nora opened her mouth. "And neither does she."

 **As he left his dorm room, he saw RWBY's door open as well. Blake was standing there and stared at him when she noticed she wasn't alone. "Hey, Jaune. Why are you up so late?" she asked.**

 **Jaune just sighed and leant his back against the JNPR's door, "Nightmare. I was going to take a walk to try to calm down. You?"**

 **"Similar boat. I was actually going to ask you if I could borrow your hoodie for the night?" She looked at him hopefully.**

"Oh, come on!" grumbled Sun, sulking in his corner far away from Cinder.

"What's wrong now?" sighed Neptune, looking over at his team leader. "Let me guess, another cliché?"

"Yes! I mean, I _know_ Blake, and she's... _Blake!_ She'd never ask something like that, she'd never ask for help in general, and she surely never looks like _that!_ " He pointed at the shy slash hopeful expression the Blake onscreen had. "And the others too! I mean, come on, since when _Yang_ acts all shy and timid or lovesick?"

"Are you agreeing with Mr Vasilias's claim of… 'calling out the Swordsman's bullshit', I believe he called it?" Ozpin asked him idly.

"Yes! No! I mean, it's just… dunno, it doesn't feel like them!" Sun glanced at Azndrgn. "Why do they act like that?"

It took him a second to notice how all eyes focused on him, and once he did, the man shrugged. "Why are you looking at me? Ask Phoenix, not me. I haven't documented this world." He scratched his cheek. "Still, I wouldn't say that heatedly making out with someone in front of all your friends -including the two or three you _know_ like him too- can be called shy, timid or lovesick, yet that's exactly what Yang did. And besides, you all have troubled pasts – the White Fang for Blake, and all the others have problems with their families, or lack thereof." He glanced at Ren and Nora apologetically. "Those kind of people have often tough or carefree exteriors to hide soft or hurt sides of them."

Sun pursued his lips, but kept silent. He'd just ask Phoenix for confirmation, but for now he was satisfied with the answer he got.

 **He felt terrible about what he was going to say next, "Sorry, Blake, but with the new semester tomorrow I decided to wash it. It's still in the dryer right now."**

"Finally he decides to wash that thing," huffed Neptune.

"Well, doesn't he have spares?" asked Weiss. "When he put his new hoodie in the wardrobe, we saw he had others too."

"Yes, but nothing else had his scent, and that's what Ms Belladonna is looking for," shrugged Winter.

 **Blake looked down sadly, "Oh, I see."**

 **He felt worse with that. He wanted to help her and loving her made that desire more so. He thought for a while and came up with an idea. He blushed at the thought of it though. "Um, Blake?" She looked at him. "I might have an idea to help. You said my presence helps calm you, right?" She nodded. "Um, well." He started to scratch the back of his head sheepishly, "Would you like me to stay with you for the night?"**

Had they been drinking, everyone minus Azndrgn would've done a spit-take. As it was, they all gaped at the screen with varying levels of shock at his apparent boldness. The Writer just laughed at their expressions.

"Did he just-"

"Is he-"

"That's indecent and-"

"-trying to get-"

"-immoral!"

"-in her pants?"

"-offer to sleep with her?"

 **It took a second for Blake to realize what he said and she blushed hardcore at it. She had trouble meeting his eyes but decided to try to speak, "I wouldn't be opposed to the idea but are you okay with it?" She looked at him for a second and Jaune thought he saw hope in her eyes mixed with the nervousness.**

 **Jaune nodded, "I wanna help you, Blake. If you'll let me."**

 **Blake was silently thinking before she took a deep breath and looked at him with a small smile, "I would appreciate it, Jaune."**

"Are we seriously gonna watch this?!" exclaimed Weiss, outraged.

"This is an invasion of privacy!" Guess who, duh.

"Calm down, calm down. It's not what you think – it's _literally_ just sleep in the same bed," Azndrgn reassured them.

 **Jaune returned the smile and held his hand out to her. She took it and she followed him into his dorm. They moved to his bed as quietly as possible and Jaune laid down, leaving enough space for Blake while holding the blankets open for her. Blake took a second to undue her bow and tie the ribbon around her wrist before lying next to him. Jaune covered her and Blake scooted over until she rested her head on his chest. Jaune gently wrapped his arm around her and she sighed in happiness.**

 **"Thank you, Jaune." She said in a whisper. "You're a great guy."**

"I wonder what freaky kind of nightmare she had if she so needed him," grumbled Sun, going on a small, silent rant about how his crush never acted even remotely soft or shy around him.

"Do you really want to know, or are you just wondering?" Azndrgn smirked at him. "Because if you do want to know, I have the power to let you live the nightmare yourself. Want to give it a shot?"

"Uhh… no thanks, I'll pass."

"I just wish we could move onto something more interesting than this… 'fluff'," snorted Cinder, spitting the word like poison.

 **"Don't mention it, Blake. I'd do this for you, even if…" Jaune caught himself and was hoping Blake wouldn't pick up on his sudden stop.**

 **His hopes were dashed with her next question, "If what?"**

 **Jaune's heart was going a mile a minute. He swallowed nervously before he started to speak nervously, "Well, um, I kinda figured out how I feel about you."**

 **Blake tensed, nervousness and hope surging within her. "Oh. So, what did you figure out?" her voice shaking slightly.**

 **Jaune took a deep breath, "I found out, that I love you, Blake." He said with zero hesitation.**

Yang's eyes went red. For a second, Jaune could swear Ruby's went too, but that was just a trick of the eye… right?

"Calm down, students, he's already stated to not only be in love with Ms Belladonna, but also Ms Xiao Long and Ms Nikos," intervened Professor Goodwitch, watching as the two girls relaxed. "And even if he didn't, we're watching another universe. Try to keep that in mind from now on."

"Sure thing Ms G."

"And call me by my title or actual name, Ms Xiao Long. First, final and only warning."

 **Blake's head shot up to look at him, her eyes wide and her mouth open. Before she eyes started to water and she had a big smile. But the smile slipped when she saw the conflict in his eyes. "What's wrong, Jaune?"**

 **Jaune looked away from her as he spoke, "I also figured out that I'm not just in love with you."**

 **Blake started to think about what he said and she realized what he meant but she still needed confirmation. "You're in love with Yang too?"**

 **Still not looking at her he nodded. "I'm also in love with Pyrrha. And I've been noticing Ruby more lately but I'm not sure if I have feelings for her though." He sighed, "What's wrong with me? I could understand why I'd be attracted to all of you but to fall in love with you all, that's just not normal. I wanna make you all happy but that's just not possible. No matter what, I'm gonna hurt someone."**

"HA! He's noticing me!" Ruby grinned victoriously.

"See? Told ya sis, you shouldn't have worried."

"Well, that kinda ruins the whole romance. Oh, what a pity." Cinder's voice dripped sarcasm. "Can we move on now?"

"I'm sorry to say, Ms Fall has a point," noted General Ironwood. "Polygamous relationships aren't looked at with approval. It'd be better for all of them to forget about it, and spare themselves a heartbreak later."

"Speak for yourself," grumbled Blake, fairly unhappy about the romance being shot down like that.

"Yeah, they can totally make it work!" exclaimed Nora.

"They don't seem to be 'making it work' here, why would they there?" asked Winter, pointing over at Yang, Jaune and Ruby. "I have rarely seen a more awkward relationship – especially with Ms Belladonna's supposed liking for Mr Arc. I think they are straining it, trying to make everyone happy and failing."

She expected a snappy retort from one of the involved party. Instead, all she got were people looking away. _'Huh. Go figure, they actually listen to what they're told.'_

 **Blake took a second to sort through everything he just said. It was indeed abnormal for someone to fall in love with three, possibly four, people at the same time but even more so to tell one of those that you loved that you did. Under normal circumstance, she would think the person was just confused or lying to just be with multiple people. But this was Jaune she was talking about. He'd never do anything shady like that and he would never say anything that he wasn't positive of. She could also see the conflict in his eyes and it made her want to help him. "Does anyone else know?" She asked, the two still talking in whispers.**

 **He shook his head before speaking again, "The only other person is my mom. I vented to her and she gave me advice, some of it more useful than the rest though."**

 **"What did she say?"**

 **"She said love is the most illogical thing out there and that I should try to accept what my heart is saying, instead of trying to rationalize it." He sighed again. "She also said no matter how this goes, the whole family would accept anyone that I would bring home." He hesitated but continued, "Even if it was more than one person."**

"And Mama Arc proves to be the best mom ever!" Nora shouted cheerfully.

"That version of her, at least," mumbled Jaune. Everyone looked at him, and he rolled his eyes back at them. "I love my mom, but she's the one who wants to kidnap and give all my possible 'love interests' the third degree in the cellar."

"Oh, right…" Ren's words were more or less what everyone was thinking. "We forgot how… peculiar… your family is."

"They're good people for Dust's sake, no need to make them sound psychopaths!"

 **Blake was shocked at this. 'What parent tells their child to have a harem?!' she thought. But as she thought more about it, she started to think that it seemed like the best option. This shocked her. But then again she knew how Yang and Pyrrha felt about Jaune and Jaune felt the same way for the three of them. But would they be comfortable with this? Was she? And most importantly, was Jaune? "Would you be okay with that?"**

 **Jaune was stunned and finally looked back at her before turning away again. "I don't know. I would like to make you all happy and if I could be with all of you, well that would be great." He sighed, "But, it would never work. It's not like my Semblance has the stipulation that I need to have multiple wives, one for each element. Besides, who would agree to share the person they love with other people?"**

Azndrgn chuckled. "That's what I was talking about when I said he accidentally references one of the worlds I'm documenting. Because there _is_ a world where, more or less indirectly, his Semblance forces him to have a harem, for a total of seven mates – even though he exploited a loophole and reduced the number to six."

"His Semblance allowed him to have a harem?!" Neptune shouted, gobsmacked.

"I didn't say that. I said it _forces_ him to, not that it _allows_ him. No mind-control involved," explained the man. "The six of them fall in love with him on their own, with no influence from his Semblance – he actually tells them about it only after they all show romantic interest in him."

"So wait, he has to have a harem and he's got a solid reason to do so?" Neptune ran a hand down his face. "Jeez, talk about lucky."

"Well, a harem is not all sunshine and rainbows, you know?" shrugged the Writer. "First of all, you have to divide your time, care and attention evenly among all the members of the harem. Second, you have to have the endurance to _keep up_ with _all_ of them, and I'm not just talking about sex. All their quirks, passions, hobbies and goals, you must support them and help them however you can. You must always have time for all of them, which means your 'me time' is reduced to next to nothing." He snorted. "Oh, and also think about the public opinion. The media would metaphorically tear everyone to shreds for something like that, your harem members, you included, would be seen as whores by many people, and society as a whole might be against you. Polygamous, polyandrous and polyamorous relationships are 'allowed', but only because no one ever thought of making a law against it. People wouldn't look at it in a positive way." The Writer finally took a breath after all of that. "So, your call, is a harem really all that it's cranked up to be, or is it overrated?"

"Oh… I never thought about it like that…" whoa'd Neptune, his mind blown. Well, not really, he was just surprised. "W-Well, having a harem is just about anyone's dream… didn't think it'd be that hard."

"It has positive sides too, just keep it in mind it also has negative parts."

"And you're saying, his Semblance forces him to have a harem?" Ironwood asked. "Why?"

Azndrgn rubbed his hands together as if to warm them. "Okay, first off, in that universe, dragons exist and the Brother Gods are inferior to them. Blah blah blah, world is created, poof, humanity appears, Brothers leave, you all know how the story goes. Anyway, Jaune's family has a hereditary Semblance which allows them to form deals with dragons, called 'contracts', to grant them special powers akin to magic. A clause of these contracts forces the wielder of the Semblance to gather one mate, aka lover, for every dragon they have a contract with. Jaune, for the first time ever, forms a contract with all the seven Dragon Kings – don't ask more questions or we'll never be done with this explanation." He rubbed his head. "Where was I? Oh, right. Jaune forms a contract with seven dragons, which means he has to gather seven mates. Due to circumstances related to the unlocking of his Aura, this number can be reduced to six as one of those mates can count as two."

Everyone took a few seconds to process what they've been told. Meanwhile, the screen reactivated and went on with the universe.

 **They were quiet for a while until, Blake broke the silence. "I think I would."**

 **Jaune quickly turned his head and finally met her eyes without turning away. Did he just hear her right? "What?"**

 **She looked at him in the eyes while speaking from her heart. "I would, Jaune." His eyes widened in shock and she continued, "I love you. More than anyone before and if you feel that way towards me, why wouldn't I want to be with you."**

Sun opened his mouth to protest, and Neptune clotheslined him in the face, knocking him on his back. "I get you're jealous, dude, but come on, this is getting ridiculous."

"Says the one who had to be chewed off by Writers to get the message through his skull," Sun complained in a nasal voice as he held his hurting nose.

 **"But Blake-" Jaune tried to protest but Blake but her finger on his lips, silencing him.**

 **"You told me before that if you found out you were in love with me, that nothing would stop you from being with me. So, if this is what you need to do, I'll accept it. Besides, I don't want my partner and friends heartbroken in exchanged for my own happiness. As long as you show all of us respect and love us all equally, I think this could work." She gave him a smile full of confidence and took her finger away.**

"Pulling the heartbreak card to make him crumble, aren't you?" snickered Yang.

"If it works," she shrugged shamelessly.

"I'm right here, you know that right?"

 **Jaune was taken back by all of this. He never even gave a thought of trying to date the three of them at once. But here Blake is saying she'd be okay with it. Could this work out? "Blake, are you sure about this?"**

"No, this can't work out," snorted Qrow. "Just say yes you idiot! She's offering to help you get a harem!"

"Was he too drunk to listen while I explained how harems work?" wondered Azndrgn.

"He's al-"

"-ways drunk, I know Ms Goodwitch, it's like that in most universes." He sighed. "I just thought Khor would've prevented him from actually getting drunk."

"As if he would ever do something responsible," huffed Weiss.

Yes, yes, blame the houseowner. I'm tossing you into the lava as soon as Phoenix looks the other way.

Weiss felt a foreboding feeling of dread running through her. She chalked it off as nothing.

 **She nodded, "Yes. I am."**

 **Jaune sighed before a small, sheepish smile formed on his lips. "Okay. I'm still not sure if this will work but I'll think it over. Let's hope Yang doesn't try to knock my teeth out." He said jokingly.**

 **Blake giggled slightly, "Don't worry. Worst case, I'll step in and save you."**

"More like use your Semblance to flee with him," grumbled Yang. "During spars, it's never funny to fight you, most of the hits you take you just use your Semblance, and punching clones isn't half as funny as punching you."

"Wait, what?!"

"Yeah!" Nora popped up. "I hate when people dodge my hits and you're at the top of the dodging list!"

"Really?" Blake rolled her eyes in amusement. "What, am I supposed to stay still or something?"

"Yes!"

 **"Thanks, Kitten." He said with a smile. She blushed at her nickname before she moved to his lips and kissed him gently. She started to pull away but Jaune couldn't hold back anymore. He closed the space between them and kissed her back. She went wide eyed before she closed them and returned it. The kiss lasted a few seconds before they separated and stared into each other's eyes, they could only see love in them. They both moved in and kissed again. They separated and reapplied the kiss several times, neither able to get enough of the other's lips.**

 **Blake wrapped her arms around his neck and Jaune pulled her closer with his arms around her back, deepening the kiss. With an unspoken word between the two, they both opened themselves and met one another's tongue. Their tongues began to wrestle with one another, both thoroughly enjoying the passion and pleasure they were giving and receiving. Jaune slowly moved one of his hand to Blake's head to pull her a bit closer. His hand was close to her ears and he was shocked when she took his hand and gently placed it on her ear. He took her cue and started to scratch her cat ears. Blake's eyes went wide and she moaned into the kiss. Jaune took this opportunity to gently slide his tongue down the length of Blake's, adding a new stimulation to the kiss. They soon reengaged in their heated tongue wrestle as Jaune kept scratching her ears.**

 **Eventually, the two had to separate to breath. They stared into the other's eyes as they were trying to regain their breath. The two rested their foreheads together and closed their eyes. "Was that worth the wait?" Jaune asked curious.**

 **Blake smiled and nodded slightly, "Very much so. I love you, Jaune."**

 **"I love you, Blake." He responded with as much love as he could put in those words. The two shared one last chaste kiss before both fell asleep.**

"Is it just me, or is something else turned on by this?" Qrow asked in his usual blunt manner.

"QROW!/UNCLE QROW!/WHAT?!"

The man laughed before turning into bird and taking off to avoid the wrath of… just about everyone else on the balcony.

* * *

 **Jaune awoke the next morning but could only see something black in front of his eyes. He pulled back slightly and found it was a black cat ear. He looked down and saw Blake cuddling up to him with a content smile on her face. Jaune could only smile. 'So that wasn't a dream.' He thought to himself.**

Weiss huffed at the corny line. "That really sounds like something Jaune would say."

"Hey!"

"I think it's pretty sweet," Blake retorted defensively.

"Since when does Blake find anything 'sweet'?" Sun groaned in frustration.

 **He was laying on his side with his arms around her back, holding her close. Blake was facing him, her face snuggled against his neck and holding him just as closely. He looked up at the other three beds and saw that his team was still asleep. He breathed a sigh of relief before looking back down at his Kitten. He gently kissed her ear and it flicked slightly afterwards. Jaune decided to stay with her for now. She was a light sleeper and didn't want to wake her by moving. He gently laid his head down and closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth with being with someone he loved. Something he almost all but forgotten at this point.**

 **They stayed like that for several minutes. Until he heard a disturbance over in RWBY's room. He heard people moving around and muffled voices. Before he could think too much about it, their door swung open and Ruby was standing there. "Guys! Blake's missing!" She shouted and the NPR of JNPR were startled awake. Nora tried to jump up but quickly fell off her bed onto the floor. Ren bolted up right and looked around, unsure of what was going on. Pyrrha jumped to her feet with her pillow above her head, ready to fight whatever was happening.**

Blake blushed. "I guess that's something you could suppose after the stunt I pulled at the docks…"

"Aww, don't worry Blakey, you'll always be our little troublemaking bookworm," Nora 'reassured' her.

"Does anyone else find amusing how Pyrrha is already in a pillow battle stance?" asked Neptune.

Pyrrha blushed as several students laughed. Even Ozpin smiled slightly. "Sorry, I'm just trained to be always alert…"

"Which is a good thing, Ms Nikos," Ironwood smiled at her. "But, in some cases, it can be an embarrassment too…"

"You sound like you have experience," Ren pointed out with a smirk.

The General sighed. "A dozen birthdays ago. They had just brought in the cake, when someone popped a bottle of wine open. In a moment of not thinking, I grabbed the cake's tray and bashed his face with it, ruining the cake, the wine, and the party." He sighed as the students roared with laughter, and rubbed his forehead. "Which is why I never celebrate my birthdays any more."

 **Ren managed to blink away his slumber and speak up, while Nora was slowly getting off the floor and Pyrrha was regaining her senses. "What's going on, Ruby?"**

 **"It's Blake! She's gone! We woke up and her bed was empty." She said as she was looking at all of them. "You guys have to help us…...find her?" Ruby's eyes landed on Jaune and Blake holding each other in his bed and her mind stopped working. The others followed her gaze and they all stared wide eyed; Ren and Nora in shock and possible approval, while Pyrrha was in shock and jealousy.**

"Uh oh, P-Money's on the warpath…" winced Yang.

 **"Uh, I can explain this." Jaune said, not sure on what to do.**

 **"Ruby, are they awake!" shouted Yang as she and Weiss came running into the doorway before stopping at seeing Blake and Jaune's compromising position. Weiss' jaw dropped, meanwhile Yang's eyes went wide before they narrowed and turned red, "Care to explain, Jaune." She said with a noticeable edge.**

"Okay, screw Pyrrha's anger, the Swordsman should definitely run now," commented Jaune. "I'd rather not watch my death by Angry Yang onscreen."

"Of come on, I'm not that bad!"

"You freak out and burst into flames every time someone as much as nicks your hair," Weiss pointed out. "Finding your love interest in bed with your love rival… well, you finish that sentence."

 **"Okay, this looks bad but it isn't what it looks like." He started.**

 **"You aren't sleeping with my partner in your bed? Because that's what it looks like!" Yang shouted.**

 **They all heard a groan and Blake spoke, "What's with all the yelling?" She slowly lifted her head and looked at Jaune, which made her smile. "Good morning, Jaune. Thank you for last night."**

 **"Um, no problem but we have company." Jaune said as he motioned with his head to her team standing at the door. She looked and her happy expression turned to one of confusion then to panic and embarrassment. She blushed before she hid her face into his chest. Jaune just sighed before he looked at everyone. "Look, Blake had a nightmare last night. I couldn't loan her my hoodie because it was in the dryer, so I offered to stay with her to calm her. She agreed and we slept in here. Everything was PG, I swear."**

"Wait, in a movie PG means you have to watch it with your parents because it's not appropriate for unsupervised children!" exclaimed Yang.

"Yes, but think, Yang," Azndrgn cut in. "Would you watch a porn movie with your parents present?"

"Ugh, no, don't even want to think about it."

"Then PG means they can't have done anything too risqué," concluded the Writer.

 **Everyone thought this over and NPR accepted it. They knew he did the same for Nora, so it wasn't so farfetched that he'd do the same for Blake, although Pyrrha was still jealous. RWY was still thinking it over, they looked like they believed him but they wanted to be sure. Weiss spoke up, "Blake? Is this true? Nothing indecent happened?"**

 **Blake slowly raised her head and sat up along with Jaune. She looked at them before nodding. "Yes. Jaune really helped me. Otherwise, I probably would've stayed up reading and would've gotten little sleep. Besides, I trust Jaune, he wouldn't do anything like that unless I was absolutely sure I wanted to." She gently took his hand in her's under the blanket.**

 **Everyone nodded and agreed. "But why did you sleep in here and not in our room?" Ruby asked.**

 **"I was not about to sleep in those deathtraps. Even if Blake's is probably the safer of the two sets." Jaune said.**

"Come on!"

"Well, he is right – our beds are not really safe," Weiss pointed out, unhelpfully.

"You do know that you could just ask Beacon's staff for bunk beds, or at the very least decent tools and materials to build them, right?" Going by their deer-in-headlights expressions, Goodwitch supposed they didn't. She sighed. "We'll change your beds as soon as we can…"

"Thanks Ms G!"

"It's Professor Goodwitch to you!"

 **Ruby just glared at him. "What's wrong with my bed?"**

 **"Besides the fact that it's hanging from the ceiling by ropes? Nothing." Jaune said with a smirk.**

 **That was the straw that broke the Goliath's back. "That's it!" Ruby shouted and charged at him. Before anyone could react, Blake got in front of Jaune and Ruby smashed into her Shadow before hitting the floor. As she got up, they all looked towards the bathroom; where Jaune was standing with Blake hugging his arm protectively. "Blake, why?" Ruby whined.**

 **"I promised that if Jaune ever needed me then I would save him." Blake stated matter of fact like.**

"As if I need saving from Ruby's fists," snorted Jaune, earning a feather-light punch from said girl – who hadn't meant to make the punch feather-light. "She can fight with that terrifying scythe of death of hers, but she can't throw a fist to save her life – Yang, how could that happen with _you_ as her sister?"

Ruby pouted as her older sister snickered. "Well, Ruby's never been one to work out. I mean, running? Yeah. But working out to improve her physical strength? Nah."

 **Jaune smiled and rubbed between her cat ears gently, "Thank you, Kitten." Blake leaned into his touch and purred slightly. She stopped herself in realization before she looked at everyone else. Pyrrha, Weiss and Ruby were shocked because they had no idea she could purr. While Ren, Nora and Yang had amused looks on their faces. Also, Nora had her scroll out and had taken a picture of them. "Nora! Now that picture cannot be sent, at all." Jaune told her sternly.**

"Oh, and by the way, Jaune?" He looked at Blake. "I want a nickname too."

The boy groaned dramatically and flopped down on the ground. "I just gave Yang one and already I have to think of another one! How is that fair?!"

"Life's not fair, get over it," shrugged the black-haired girl. "And then get me a nickname."

Jaune groaned again.

 **Nora just nodded with a big grin, "I know but it was too cute to not get a picture."**

 **Jaune just ran his hand down his face with a sigh and Blake was busy putting her bow on trying to hide her blush. "Alright, everything is okay. So, can we just get ready for our day?"**

 **"I guess so." Ruby said pouting after her failed attempt to get Jaune. She glared at him. "I will get my revenge, Jaune." She said.**

 **"Ruby, the last time you tried to get revenge, you made me and Yang kiss." He pointed out.**

 **"Thanks again, Sis." Yang replied with her teasing smile.**

 **Ruby blushed, "Okay, I'll admit that wasn't my best idea."**

 **"If you drop the revenge thing, Rosebud, I'll bake you a special batch of cookies."**

 **Ruby thought it over, "Fine but they better be good." She said in her best Weiss impersonation.**

 **Jaune went over to her and hugged her, "That's my Rosebud." He said happily and she blushed profusely. After that, RWBY went back to their room. Blake giving him a loving smile as she left. Jaune just returned it and thought to himself, 'I'm not sure if this is good or bad. But, it just feels right.' His smile fell though after a second. 'What am I going to do about Yang and Pyrrha though?'**

"Didn't Blake already told him to just go for it?" Yang winced as she received a slap from Jaune himself. "Ouch! What was that for?!"

"One, don't pretend you felt that because you didn't. Two, can't you stop worrying? I'm pretty sure Phoenix hinted at the fact he'll get with all of you before, so just wait and you'll see." Jaune sat back up. "Heck, even the houseowner said so."

"I have a question, why don't you just call him Khor?" asked Azndrgn, curious. "It's shorter and easier."

Weiss shook her head. "No. We cannot call him by name, or we'll end up humanizing him."

The Writer sweat-dropped before sighing and shaking his head. "Oh well, his problems to deal with – not that he seems to be particularly worried about that." He stood up and stretched a bit. "I'd better be going now. Stuff to do, worlds to document – the usual, really. It was nice meeting you all."

"Are you gonna do that dragon thing again?" Nora asked excitedly.

"Yep, so watch closely and who knows? Maybe you'll manage it too." Ren looked positively terrified at that. "But I doubt it. Anyway, goodbye everyone."

In another flash of light, Azndrgn disappeared. As soon as she could see again, Nora grinned up at the huge bluish-green dragon that was flying upwards.

She was pretty sure he winked at her before flying out of sight.

 ** _Before you ask, yes I do have azndrgn's permission for this - he was the one to actually ask me to add it. I think the reason's been quite obvious. LordHellPhoenix referenced azndrgn's Jaune Ryu-Long, the Dragon Contractor and so here Azndrgn appeared to show the Watchers how universes can influence other universes._**

 ** _I mean, come on, how do you explain dreams otherwise?_**

 ** _(if it's a magical explanation, I don't wanna hear it)_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	35. Chapter 34

**_I'm not dead! No, I'm just having a friend from Italy over, which means I can't exactly say "Hey, wait a few hours...", turn my back on him, write my stories, post them and then say. "Okay, now I'm free for ten minutes before I start writing another chapter." So yeah, long time no see._**

Nora Valkyrie was a hammer maiden with a plan. She stood on the edge of the chasm that would lead her to either a quick but horribly painful death, or on the way to pure freedom. The only thing she had going for herself? A quick wink sent to her by a gigantic divine god slash author in dragon form that _might_ have _possibly_ hinted at some _well-hidden_ powers within her soul that would _hopefully_ allow her to turn into a dragon… or at least a flying sloth.

For a girl who still firmly believed that Santa had yet to be eaten by Grimm, the Tooth Fairy actually survived thorough the ages of misery and death, and that Dust could be eaten without repercussions, taking a literal leap of faith on such assumptions was more than safe enough.

Of course, the others wouldn't have thought the same, but fortunately they weren't looking at what she was doing, instead using the time before the next viewing to chat and discuss what they thought of that new Writer, Azndrgn. A few thought he was cool, Weiss deemed him at the very least polite, most didn't really care. By then, they were all too used to weirdness to care.

Nora took a deep breath to prepare herself for the feeling of being a dragon, and stepped off the edge. For a few seconds, she was free-falling, heading straight for the lava, and then…

She popped back up the rocky outcropping, a couple of yards off the ground, landing on Ren's head with a thud and a groan.

"Ugh, Nora, why?" the boy moaned as they got back up. Nora ignored him as she threw herself off the edge once again. "Nora!"

 _Thud_.

"Ugh…"

Again.

 _Thud_.

"Ugh… Nora…"

AGAIN!

 _Thud_.

"Nora!"

She finally realized she'd crashed into Ren four times already, and gave him a sheepish smile. "Sorry Ren…"

The poor boy just sighed in defeat. "Let's just wait until the viewing start…" he replied tiredly, knowing that he couldn't stop her no matter what he did. Together-together or not together-together, he had no such power.

"Okay Ren~" she sing-sang cheerfully, plopping down beside him.

"Is she always so hyper?" Cinder scoffed disdainfully, staring at the hyperactive ginger like one would look at a supersonic jet that started making bomb-dives for no reason whatsoever.

"No, sometimes she's worse," Weiss replied bluntly.

"Weiss, be nice," Ruby scolded her.

"I'm just calling it as I see it: this is not the craziest thing she's ever done," the heiress defended her position. "Do you remember her last, and only one witnessed by us, sugar rush?"

Everyone who had been there at the time shivered. Nora on a sugar rush was no more destructive than normal Nora, that was impossible, but she was way clingier and more prone to talking everyone's ear off about made-up nonsense. Also, her chicanery shenanigans weren't easy to handle, either.

Ruby opened her mouth to try and deny Weiss's statement, but no words came out, and she awkwardly closed it again. To be honest, everyone had had those thoughts before, secretly and maybe more nicely put, but those thoughts nonetheless.

"Let's just wait until the viewing start, okay?" Winter offered as peace-keeper.

"No fair, I wanted to talk with Phoenix," sulked Sun, promptly shoved slash nudged by Neptune.

"Hey, he's a god, he's probably very busy. He can't pop by every two seconds," reasoned the blue-haired boy.

"Shh, it's starting!" Nora shushed them all, pointing excitedly at the screen where, true to her words, colours had overtaken its previous black.

 **After the eventful wake up both teams had that morning, Jaune showered and dressed in his uniform then waited for the rest of his team to get ready. He also decided to wear his new gloves and belt for the first time. He was checking how he looked in the mirror and thought it was improvement.**

"Meh, not much different," shrugged Nora. Years of living with Ren on their own had made her pretty blind to fashion and things like those, as she'd never really had the money to worry about how 'good' she looked. That, and Ren always assured her she looked good in anything to avoid possible damage to his kneecaps.

"Small details are what makes or fails an outfit," replied Weiss, who was the exact opposite of the girl in that regard. "Just about anyone can pull off a suit with some hair brushing and some decent manners. It takes a keen eye to tell those simple men from a true gentleman. In the same way, any woman can buy a beautiful dress, but a lady will always stand out for the most minute of things."

A very awkward silence fell on the group after her explanation, even though some people like Winter, Cinder, Ironwood and surprisingly Qrow nodded in agreement.

 **"You look good, Jaune." Pyrrha said also checking him out.**

"Attagirl, go get that booty!" Nora again.

"Nora!"

 **Jaune smiled at her through the mirror, "Thank you, Pyr. Still not dashing but I'm getting there." He said in a posh accent, which made Pyrrha giggle. "The belt is exactly how I wanted. Weiss even installed an aura lock on it." He said happily.**

 **"Like your swords?" she asked.**

 **Jaune nodded, "But, it can only allow my aura to gain access to the clips though. But considering my Little Sister, that's probably for the best." He said this as he lightly smacked away Nora's hand. She was trying to sneak up on him to try to get one of his clips of lightning dust. She pouted slightly at that and they all laughed a little before heading to the cafeteria. They all sat down at their usual table with WBY, Ruby was not there yet. Jaune was enjoying his coffee while they had idle conversation. That was until they all heard someone shout for Jaune.**

"Oh no…"

"Oh yes!"

Jaune groaned and hid his face into his hands, remembering that day from his own timeline. "This is gonna be awful."

"Cheer up, the Swordsman's probably gonna ace it all," Neptune snorted. "The guy could take on a Grimm Dragon or whatnot."

 _Pfffffttt-_

The sound of someone spitting their drink echoed in the volcano's crater, following by hacking coughs and strangled exclamations which didn't make any sense.

 **"Hey, Arc!" They all turned to see Cardin walking over to them. Everyone, besides Jaune and Blake, were staring daggers at him but stopped when Jaune got up and walked over to him.**

"Uhh… does Cardin have a death wish?" Yang wondered perplexedly, frowning at the screen.

Nora grinned demoniacally. "I hope he does!" she exclaimed cheerfully, deploying her hammer. "I'm so tired of breaking his kneecaps in Combat Class, I want to level up to his head!"

"That would be murder, Ms Valkyrie," Ironwood reminded her while Goodwitch merely sighed, thoroughly used to the girl causing mayhem during her main class, and thoroughly fed up with it already.

 **"What's up, Cardin?" He asked while waving at him. The two stopped a couple feet away from each other.**

 **"I was just wondering if you'd wanna spar later? Maybe give my team and I a few pointers?" Cardin asked.**

"Yup, he has a death wish," nodded Jaune, indirectly praising his alternative self and thus, in some twisted and weird way, praising himself. Which was an absolute first.

 **Jaune nodded with his usual smile, "Sure, Cardin. I have nothing going on as far as I know. Mind if we go a little light though? I'm not feeling a hundred percent today." Having nightmares for the last week left him slightly on the sleep deprived side. The only decent sleep he had gotten was with Blake the night before.**

"Oh, I'm a bit tired, can a full team of people who should theoretically be about as strong as me as we are both first years, not go full-out on me?" Neptune mocked the Swordsman. "Gah, at first I thought he was cool, but this is getting so… so… so stupid. It's like watching the movie version of an exaggerated tale made to make mundane idiots look like grand heroes. It's cringe-worthy."

"Mr Vasilias, I can assure you that at the Swordsman's age, Mr Branwen here was already at the level of a third year, and he trained for only two years more than most," Ozpin replied calmly, though the mere fact he had bothered to reply at all was a clear sign he too was getting fed up with the complaints. "The Swordsman here has been training for almost twice as long as a standard student – and while this might sound cruel, Team CRDL are _below_ standard students."

"Plus, Pyrrha can kick CRDL's butts easily," added Ruby.

"Yeah, but Pyrrha is Pyrrha. She's the Invincible Girl."

"Is the fact she's a girl the only reason why she is 'allowed' to be so strong while the Swordsman isn't?" Yang asked, eyes narrowing. She'd met those kind of people before. At a first thought they sounded like feminist ways of thinking, but in the end it was still a discrimination. And she hated when people dismissed the fact she was strong as mere 'she's a girl, Hunters are mostly made of women so it's natural she's stronger'. It was demeaning, like her gender mattered more than her training. "So what, if the Swordsman were to be a chick you'd be fine with checking her out and who cares?!"

"No, Pyrrha just got the top quality training with the top quality training facilities and the top quality instructors as well as being a prodigy," he replied hurriedly. "It's just logical for her to be better than everyone."

"And if we were to talk about Mr Arc, that would be the case. No offence, Mr Arc," Ozpin added, to which Jaune just shrugged. It was the truth. It wasn't like any other teenager in the room could defeat Pyrrha, after all. "But the Swordsman has had even more years to prepare, with a legendary Huntress as teacher, and he's probably also a prodigy."

"Ugh, whatever."

 **"That's fine, man. We don't wanna go overboard anyways. So, how about an hour or so before dinner?"**

 **"That's fine by me. See you guys then." Jaune responded and the two nodded. They went their separate ways and Jaune sat down with his friends and he noticed they were all staring at him wide eyed. "What?"**

 **"Did you just agree to spar with Cardin?" Yang asked.**

 **Jaune just nodded at that. "But he's a scoundrel!" Weiss said.**

"He may be, but he's still a Hunter in training," Goodwitch reminded them with a frown. "Do not demonize him. While he is _far_ from the model Hunter, he still cares for the people… even though he _is_ arrogant, lordly and a bully. But with the Grimm at our doorstep at all times, we don't have the benefit of being picky."

Most teens nodded in agreement, even though they still didn't like Cardin much.

 **Jaune just sighed, "Cardin is trying to change and help his team as well. He already apologized for what he did last semester. Blake was there as well." They all turned to Blake, who looked up from her book and nodded. "Look, we're probably never gonna be best friends but he's making the effort to change. And I don't mind helping him." He drank from his coffee.**

 **"How can you forgive him that easily?" Pyrrha asked.**

"It's not about forgiving _him_ , it's about being a good person _myself_ ," replied Jaune, shaking his head. "I wouldn't go out of my way to help him change: that'd be forgiving him and spending my time trying to better him. I'm just giving him a chance when he asks for one. That's what makes us good people instead of just warriors looking down at another warrior."

"That, and you're too good of a person to not forgive someone," giggled Ruby.

Jaune glanced at her. "Uhh, guy who traumatized several boyfriends and girlfriends here, you know that, right?"

"Uhh… they… deserved that?"

He shrugged. In his humble opinion, yes they did.

 **Jaune thought for a second before he shrugged, "Because he didn't do anything unforgivable. He screwed up and he is taking responsibility for it, so why should I hold a grudge?" Pyrrha was about to say something before Jaune gently laid a hand onto her shoulder. "I only hold a grudge when a person does something really terrible and could never make up for it." He took his hand away and gained a thousand-yard stare. "There are only three people I hold a grudge against. Two of them paid for what they did. The third will when I find them." He said this with voice just above a whisper and it made them all shudder.**

"I wonder who that is," commented Cinder, ignoring the Swordsman's deadly voice completely, as if he'd just commented on the weather.

"I'd like not to find out," replied Ren.

 **No one said anything for a while but eventually Nora brought up her latest dream. Everyone listened to her with different degrees of interest. Jaune looked over to Blake and smiled at her. But something wasn't right though. She was on the same page of her book for entirely too long and her eyes weren't moving. He wanted to ask her but decided to not bring it to everyone's attention. He grabbed his scroll off of his belt, the magnetic space was way more convenient than keeping it in his pocket, and sent a message to his favorite Faunus.**

"That doesn't say much…" noted Yang.

 **Jaune: Hey, Kitten, is everything okay?**

"This reminds me: Jaune, you still need to come up with a nickname for me." Blake held up a hand. "I know all this 'relationship' of ours is still too hazy and all and we'll need days, if not weeks or months, to figure it all out after we go back to Remnant, but you can call me that even if we just remain friends. I've never had a nickname like most people, so I'd like one."

Jaune sighed, his argument defeated. "I'm thinking about it Blake, but come on, give me some time… Or I'm just gonna call you Micia."

"My CIA?" Nora wondered, somehow knowing the acronym of an agency that didn't even exist on Remnant _seriously this girl will drive everyone insane one day!_

"Micia. M-I-C-I-A. In one of the dead languages it literally means 'kitten'," shrugged the boy. "I know calling you 'cat' is not the best nor the most original of nicknames, but I need time to-"

"No, no, it's perfect!" Blake cut him off. "I like having a nickname from a dead language. I love literature, and as opposite to what Yang says not _all_ of my books are smut."

"So you admit some are?"

"I never said that."

"So… Micia it is?" Jaune asked, slightly surprised she'd accept such a nickname. She shrugged. "Micia it is…"

 **Jaune waited and soon Blake brought up her scroll. She read the message and looked across the table at him with a raised eyebrow. She then typed on her scroll and Jaune received a message immediately.**

 **Blake: Yes. Why do you ask?**

 **It was Jaune's turn to look at her with a raised eyebrow before sending her a message in return.**

 **Jaune: Because you've been on that same page for ten minutes. That only happens when you're either sleeping or thinking.**

"Which means he's been staring at her nonstop for ten minutes," remarked Neptune. "Wow, creepy stalker much, huh?"

"I'd say he's her boyfriend, but yeah this seems a bit exaggerated…" admitted Weiss. "Maybe he was worried for her?"

"Maybe," he conceded the point.

 **Blake quickly read it and had a small smile before she sent him another message.**

 **Blake: Guess you found me out. I'm just distracted today, no need to worry.**

 **Jaune sent another message.**

 **Jaune: You sure? I wanna help if I can.**

 **She smiled before she sent a response.**

 **Blake: I am and I know, Jaune. Thank you for worrying.**

"You're welcome for nothing."

Blake shot him a shocked look. "What?!"

Yang, however, began laughing, and between the laughters she managed to explain. "He basically said 'you're welcome' and 'it was nothing' at the same time! He replied to your 'thank you for worrying' as if his worrying was nothing, so he replied 'you're welcome for nothing'!"

Jaune frowned at her. "You know it wasn't actually funny, right?"

"No, but at least you're trying!"

 **Jaune sighed and nodded his head. He thought about sending another message but was contemplating until he decided to send it.**

 **Jaune: So, um, are we together-together now? It's fine if we aren't but I kinda wanna be sure.**

 **He sent the message and waited with baited breath. Blake brought up her scroll again and soon she had a small blush. She looked at him with a shy look and a small smile. Whatever she was either going to say or send was interrupted when a giant white binder was slammed onto the table. Jaune jumped before looking at it then at the one who threw it onto the table, Ruby. Jaune sighed before standing up with his mug. "Jaune, where are you going?" Ruby asked him.**

"As far away from there as possible," grumbled the boy.

"Oh, come on, it was fun!" Ruby protested.

"For you? Yes. For me? Definitely no. I was thrown into walls, windows and tables, then hit with turkeys and then slammed into a wall with enough strength to crack it all," Jaune counted off with his fingers. "And if that wasn't enough, I was _also_ pelted with food, which took _forever_ to get out of my hair, face and uniform, which earned me a detention from Goodwitch since we're supposed to keep the uniform _clean_."

"We have several spares," Weiss pointed out.

"Nora," was all Jaune said to explain, and no one questioned further even though Yang looked curious. "So yeah, that was _really_ not my day, and if the Swordsman can actually get away from that this time, well it'd be _much_ better. At least I'd feel better by proxy."

"Oh, quit complaining you big baby, everyone was smacked around a bit," replied Nora, though all of them shared slightly ashamed looks. True, everyone had gotten hit, but Jaune was way below any of them in combat skills even in food battles. Had they really been so wrapped-up in their fun that they hadn't noticed Jaune wasn't having fun at all?

It seemed so.

 **Jaune just smirked at her before walking away, "I need a refill." He held up his mug. "I think I'm gonna need it." He took his time refilling his mug and getting back to the table, hopefully missing Ruby's brand of crazy. He sat back down and heard the end of the reaper's speech.**

 **"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But, classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today."**

"And suddenly I'm with Jaune on this, let's get out of there," sighed Weiss. Blake and Yang secretly agreed with her. They all loved Ruby dearly, but she could be… a bit too Nora sometimes. She didn't know the meaning of the word 'calm'.

 **"Is this really necessary?" Jaune asked and everyone looked at him. "We spend all our time with one another. I'm confident in saying our teams are the closest in our year. Maybe in the whole school. We could probably go to Ozpin and he'd make us and eight-person team, if we asked." He said jokingly before drinking his coffee.**

 **"We could do that? Let's do it!" Nora shouted causing Jaune to choke on his coffee.**

 **"What?" Jaune said in disbelief.**

"I'm sorry to inform you, students, that such is impossible," Ozpin stated. "The teams of Beacon are created followed very specific rules, among which is the maximum number of four members plus emergencies. Whenever possible, multiple teams with four or less individuals are made. So, no eight-people team, I'm afraid."

"Bummer," sulked Ruby.

Jaune, Weiss, Blake and Ren all sighed in relief. Jaune, because as co-leader he didn't want to take responsibility for RWBY's insane actions which put even Nora to shame. Weiss because she just didn't want to be on Nora's team, and same for Blake. Ren sided with Jaune on that.

 **"Yeah, let's do it! It'd be awesome to be one big team!" Ruby said with a lot of enthusiasm.**

 **"Hold up." Jaune said, trying to stop this before it snowballed. "We'd have to decide on a team leader for the team and I'm pretty sure it'd be a tie between me and you, Ruby."**

 **"I'm fine with stepping down to be the second-in-command and let you lead, Jaune." She said with a small blush. Jaune's jaw dropped before he turned to the rest of RWBY.**

 **"You are indeed a good leader, Jaune, I have no qualms with following you." Weiss said as professional as she could.**

"As opposite to this world," snickered Neptune.

"Actually, Weiss is perfectly okay with following my lead," Jaune snapped back. "At Beacon we do these things called _Random Mixed Teams Training_ , or _RMTT_ for short, in which four students randomly picked have to work together as a team. And even when Weiss, Ruby and I ended up on the same mixed team, Ruby and I shared the leadership as we both excelled in different fields of strategy. So yes, Weiss would be fine following me anyway, especially since -no offence Ruby- her leader is not the best when it comes to social interactions."

"Like you're any better," scoffed Neptune.

"I actually am. It's flirting what I'm horrible at."

"Jaune's right, we can lead together with no problems," Ruby piped up afterwards. "While we are both good leaders, he's way better than me at defensive strategy since my team has next to no defensive fighters while Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren can double as defenders when needed. As opposite he's not used to attack as a defence like we do because he doesn't have a team of offensive fighters like I do."

Ozpin smirked at Ironwood. "The faker and the child, James, the faker and the child. Do you have any more complaints about me making them leaders or accepting them into Beacon?"

The general grumbled.

 **"I'm with my sister on this one, Hero." Yang said with teasing look.**

 **"Do you even need to ask?" Blake replied.**

 **Jaune was panicking right now. He had no problem being the leader for both teams but with the unusual circumstances he found himself in with three of the six women, he was not a fan of this situation. Especially considering what Yang could and probably would do if they were on the same team together. He needed to divert from this conversation, now. So, he had to resort to something he hadn't had to in a long time. He took a breath before giving the command. "Nora. Distraction, now!"**

"Oh no… I didn't just do that, right?" Jaune moaned pitifully.

"Yes you did!" Nora shot over to him and hugged the life out of the poor boy. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you! I've been waiting since forever to be a distraction!"

"I'm not _that_ bad," Yang grumbled grouchily at how the Swordsman believed her to be some sort of continuous cocktease or whatever.

"You're not. Evidently your other self is," Weiss shrugged nonchalantly. "There _are_ several differences between our universes."

"Or maybe he's just exaggerating or being overly dramatic?" Blake offered weakly. That universe's Yang had been more direct in her approach, but it wasn't _that_ bad… was it?

 **Nora instantly saluted, "On it, Fearless Leader!" Nora quickly grabbed a pie. From where, no one knew or could ask before she threw it at Weiss with enough force to knock her out of her seat. Everyone just stared in shock before looking at Nora then shifting their gazes to Jaune.**

 **Jaune placed his hand over his eyes. "Nora?"**

 **"Yes, Jaune?" she asked with her usual smile and cheerfulness.**

 **"Why did you hit Weiss with a pie?"**

"Because you asked me for a distraction and it was funny! Plus, Weiss cares so much for her hair that it was a surefire way to take the conversation off of the eight-people team!" Nora replied cheerfully. "Yang could've worked too but Yang usually hurts people when her hair is harmed while Weiss just gets angry, so no one would've gotten hurt and we would've had a good time! That's why I hit her back during _our_ food fight too!"

Weiss blinked at her. "I honestly had no idea you had actually thought that through."

"Of course I did!" laughed Nora.

"What do you mean 'I hurt people'?" inquired Yang, a little cross.

"Exactly that," shrugged the orangehead. "When your hair is pulled into the crossfire, you go berserk and you hurt anyone in your way. That's just how you are, you've done that many times. Especially whenever Jaune accidentally either got in the way of your revenge or damaged your hair in some way. You have anger issues."

Yang shrunk sheepishly in her seat while Goodwitch glared at her, fully knowing she was responsible for a _lot_ of Beacon's property damage every day.

 **"You wanted a distraction and what could be more distracting than that? Plus, it was funny." She replied.**

 **Jaune slowly slid his hand down his face and groaned. He looked over at Ruby and she was glaring at him. "You do realize this means war, right?" She said seriously.**

 **Jaune sighed and nodded. With that, food was starting to fly and students started to run, screaming. JNPR quickly created a 'castle' from a few tables and vending machines; Nora was standing at the top laughing and shouting, "I'm Queen of the castle!" Pyrrha stood halfway up while Ren and Jaune stood on either side of the bottom with their arms crossed. Meanwhile RWBY was standing on the opposite side of the cafeteria with Ruby shouting, "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be delicious!" with the rest of her team agreeing with a unanimous "Yeah!"**

"No, yes, no," Jaune replied to onscreen Ruby's statement, his voice dull and uninterested.

"You really didn't like that food fight, didn't you?" Cinder asked him with a raised eyebrow. "Then why didn't you quit?"

"Because I was thrown around and by then the girls were blocking the only exit… unless I wished to exit through a wall. Then I got knocked down and then slammed into a wall," sighed the boy. "Even though Nora was the one to start it, I was the easiest target, so it's not like I had much of a chance to begin with…"

"Great friends," scoffed the pyromaniac, to which Jaune shrugged.

"They were having fun, and I was happy to see them happy. Not their fault I can't hold my own with food just like I can't with weapons. I can take any of them at videogames."

"How?" asked Neptune. "I've heard Yang and Ruby are really good."

"Yeah, but if you tickle them while they're playing, it's too easy," replied the boy.

"Cheating," scoffed Ironwood. "I should've expected it."

"All is fair in love, war, videogames and family."

No one asked why he'd added family to the saying.

 **Nora then shouted, "Off with their heads!" and all hell broke lose.**

Is this girl for serious? And Alice in Wonderland quote? What next, she'll start quoting her own show?

 **Nora flipped a table to send a barrage of watermelons towards RWBY, Ren kicked another three and Pyrrha threw two more. Jaune stood behind them and touched a wind dust clip on the right side of his belt and activated his Semblance. His eyes shifted to light green before he clapped his hands together to create a gust of wind to send them flying faster.**

"His Semblance? That's cheating!" exclaimed Sun. "What if someone has a skin-hardening Semblance? Food would bounce off him and he'd be invincible! No Semblances should be allowed in a food fight!"

"In our food fights, they are," shrugged Pyrrha, remembering how she too had used her Semblance during the fight. "And now that Jaune figured out his Semblance, I don't think we'll have any problem winning the next food fight."

Goodwitch glared at her for suggesting another food fight would happen, while most others just looked at her in confusion, not understand why she was so sure of herself.

"Jaune's Semblance can control air," she explained. "Which means that with enough training, he'll be able to deflect food thrown and maybe even deflect Ruby's tornado-like technique."

Ruby pouted challengingly. "Dream on, Winged Boy, Team RWBY will never lose!"

"Uhh… you did not ten hours ago," Jaune pointed out flatly, making Ruby's face redden slightly in embarrassment. "But don't worry, if you learn from your mistakes you'd probably win against us."

"And what would our mistakes have been?" inquired Weiss.

"You believed yourself invincible," he replied simply. "You didn't pay attention to how our team selected each of your members carefully as to be the right counter for you, because you're too used to winning every time you fight without observing how your opponent fights. Had you broken the selection, who knows maybe you would've even won against Pyrrha."

Pyrrha blushed slightly at how highly Jaune thought of her… even though that was actually close to the truth. Without Semblances she could defeat any of Team RWBY, but it would be a good challenge. With her Polarity, no weapon user could stand a chance against her. She could probably take on their whole team by herself.

 **"Yang! Turkeys!" Ruby shouted. Yang charged forward and stuck her arms into two turkeys before flipping forward and slamming her hands together. Before starting to punch as many of the melons as possible before jumping back to avoid the rest. Blake than jumped over her partner before rolling and picking up two baguettes. She ran forward with Yang right behind her. Blake cut through another salvo of melons before Yang took point and punch a few more followed with her sending the turkeys towards Jaune and Pyrrha.**

"This is how far I went before I got knocked out," Jaune informed everyone, far too used to ridicule to be affected by the snickers that already started. "Both turkeys hit me, on in the front and one in the back of my head and PAM! Down I went until Ruby smashed me into the wall."

"Sorry…"

Ironwood frowned. "Mr Arc, back then, how was your Aura control?"

The boy blinked. "Uh… good? I guess? I mean, I'd only had a few weeks of training with Pyrrha which was mostly combat, but I knew a little."

The man pursued his lips as if in deep thought, but when he spoke it turned out to be annoyance. "And did your friends know about this?"

Jaune nodded slowly.

"Then, Ms Xiao Long, may I ask you _what in the world were you thinking?!_ " No one expected the general's sudden ire, Yang least of all. "Do you have any idea of what you could've done?!"

"W-What?" she stammered, confused to no end.

"Aura takes a while to be mastered to the point of a constant protection of the body. He probably hadn't even thought to engage his Aura since it was a mere food fight-"

"I actually had, we were throwing watermelons at them," Jaune piped up.

"Still, the back of the head is an extremely vulnerable area. Even a skilled Aura user could be knocked out by a single hit in the back of their head, and you hit a -no offence, Mr Arc- below-standard _trainee_ who you _knew_ had been training with Aura for just a few weeks, with an object infused with enough Aura to destroy _watermelons_ , launched at superhuman strength and speed – and before you deny that, you threw it _forward_ and it kept going _forward_ , like a bullet, which indicates it was fast enough to defy gravity."

Yang shrank and shrank as the man went on, having never realized just how dangerous her actions might've been.

Then he turned to Ruby. "The same goes for you, Ms Rose. I may not know how _exactly_ you ended up slamming him into a wall and pelting him with food, but once again it was an incredibly foolish, irresponsible and dangerous thing to do! You're trained to fight, not to destroy everything in a wide radius around you every time you feel just a _hint_ of adrenaline. Especially, keeping in mind who you are fighting with _and_ against, is a very important part of your future job. Being a Hunter isn't unleashing mass destruction wherever you go, no matter how 'cool' that might be for you. Don't forget that."

Both sisters, now not excited about the food fight any more, miserably apologized to the boy for… well, almost killing him, or so they said.

He just awkwardly forgave them. Because, honestly, Ironwood wasn't exactly _wrong_. True, he was pretty good at Aura control already so that hadn't been a real problem, but the point still stood no matter of his Aura being active or not. Though sometimes he had even wondered if he'd had Aura even before Beacon without being aware of it, given how quickly he'd learn how to harness it. After all, he _did_ survive the fall from the Beacon cliffs, and when Pyrrha told him Aura gave him some sort of 'sixth sense', he _had_ admitted he'd felt it before even though his Aura was supposedly locked.

He frowned. Had he gotten his Aura unlocked twice, somehow? That'd explain the large reserves…

 **Jaune stepped in front of Pyrrha, throwing his hand forward and created a wind screen to knock them away before both picked up their own baguettes before Blake dropped in on them. The two partners started to tag team Blake, the latter having to use her Shadow to avoid a two sided assault. She kicked Jaune in the gut and sent him back. She jumped into the air and threw one of her baguettes at Pyrrha who knocked it away. She then used her baguette as a javelin and Jaune shot his fist forward, applying more wind behind it. Blake couldn't react in time and was set flying back before slamming into her partner.**

"Why is the Swordsman aiding everyone in everything they do even though in _our_ world they did _the exact same thing_ without his help?" Neptune commented, exasperated.

Jaune shrugged. "I mean, if you could help your allies win a battle more easily, you would do, right? Even if you know they can manage on their own."

Neptune nodded, accepting the point, though the irritation remained.

 **Ruby came sliding in, using a tray as an impromptu skateboard to grind across the tables before slamming into Pyrrha. She was forced back but was caught by Jaune, who smiled at her. Ren and Nora charged past them to engage in the front-line. Ruby quickly spun and Weiss took her place with a bottle of ketchup to form a puddle of ketchup that Ren slipped on and slid into a few tables.**

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, you will see why Ren was still single back in Beacon even though he's fairly handsome, smart, and knows not to flirt like an idiot," Jaune pompously stated, gesturing to the screen. Nora blushed while everyone else snickered.

Though Ironwood, Winter, Qrow and Cinder all looked quite confused by such statement.

 **"Not my REN!" Nora shouted in anger. She ripped a pipe out of the ceiling and impaled a watermelon to create a hammer before she slammed into Ruby. She was sent flying back and Weiss picked up a swordfish to resume her assault. She used a Glyph to send her flying forwards and hit Nora back. Nora slid to a stop before she shouted, "Jaune, pick me up!" Jaune set Pyrrha onto her feet again before he touched a lightning clip on the right side of the buckle. His right eye shifted to yellow before he sent an arc of lightning towards Nora, by whipping the same hand towards her, before his eye shifted back to light green. Nora absorbed the energy and charged Weiss, who was now on the defensive because of Nora's increased strength. Nora soon hit Weiss hard enough to send her flying into the wall and breaking a pillar. Bringing RWBY's numbers down to three.**

"Ah. Overprotectiveness," nodded the General. The snickers increased at the sight of Berserk Nora.

 **Ruby quickly caught Weiss before she hit the ground, "Weiss! Don't leave me! Nooo!" she said dramatically while cradling her partner.**

 **Yang ran forward with her eyes red and hair shining. She grabbed two more turkeys and with her Semblance active, shouting, "You made my sister cry!" Ren recovered and grabbed two leaks to engage the blonde brawler. Ren used his aura strikes to keep even but the physical hits were just making Yang stronger. Soon she used an uppercut to send him into the air and Ren sent the leaks at her with his aura palms. The leaks were turned into barrage of shrapnel aimed at Yang. Unluckily for him, they barely missed and she jumped up to slam him back into the ground. JNPR's numbers were even with RWBY's now.**

"Uh-oh…" mumbled Pyrrha. "Never touch Ren before taking Nora out."

"Yeah, we learned…" sighed Yang. "Or rather, _I_ did…"

"Don't worry Yang, we learned by your failures too," Weiss smiled wickedly at her, earning a pout from the brawler.

 **Nora then charged to avenge Ren. The two titans started to battle again, both fighting for someone they loved. They were evenly matched. Until Jaune charged forward, bringing his left hand to the left side of his buckle to absorb dust from an earth clip. His left eye shifted to brown and he concentrated his aura into his left hand to catch one of Yang's punches. Jaune than stomped his foot into the ground and slid it to the left. The ground around them raised slightly and turned clockwise, giving Nora an opening. She hit Yang in the back and sent her through the ceiling. RWBY now had two members standing.**

Neptune sighed, but let it slip. True, the Swordsman's hand at been in there too, but as Jaune had pointed out, it wasn't like him to just let the others on their own if he could help. Neptune too had no problem admitting he would help his team as a general support who doubled as front fighter if he had a Semblance like that.

 **Jaune's left eye shifted back to light green before he looked at Nora. "Overkill." Was all he said to her and she just shrugged. Blake then flipped into the fray with several linked sausages to use as a substitute for a kusarigama. This sent the two of them flying into the vending machines and knocking down the 'castle'. Jaune fell to the ground and laid there because his endurance had dropped due to his wind enhanced aura. Nora quickly rolled out of it and started to send soda cans flying like her grenades. Blake started to backflip away from them. Pyrrha, seeing her partner down, decided she wanted revenge like her honorary sister. Using her Polarity to send waves of cans at Blake, sending her flying back and leaving Ruby to stand alone.**

"By the way, Blake, where did you end up?" Nora asked, kinda curious.

"Oh, she hit the wall and fell down behind me," replied the girl's team leader, eager to see how the Swordsman would defeat her -in her opinion- undefeatable spinning technique.

 **Deciding to finish this, she shot forward at her top speed. Pulling all the cans and food with her. She soon started to spin, creating a vortex of wind and food towards JNPR. Jaune saw this and forced himself to stand. He threw his arms out to the side and created a cyclone around himself before flying at Ruby. The two collided together and stood even for a second or two, while the cyclone spun around them with all the food still caught in it. Jaune was soon starting to get pushed backwards from Ruby's increased speed. She smirked at Jaune, "Give up, Jaune. You can't beat me when it comes to speed."**

"Question!" Sun raised a hand. "How could she do that? Air vacuum?"

"I think a mix of air vacuum and leftover wind from her passage," replied Winter, observing the technique as it was played. "The wind from her passage is the 'vortex', which by itself is really weak, but that combined with the vacuum can actually become interesting. Her high speed leaves a void of air behind her, which automatically sucks in whatever it can to fill the void. However, the sheer stopping force of the still air before her should've prevented her from performing this technique. Either that, or young Ms Rose has more Aura than I initially thought."

Ruby shrugged. "I have the most Aura out of my entire team, Yang second, then Blake then Weiss. Everyone always think Yang has a lot and I have very little but honestly I never had a problem with using any so-called 'expensive Aura technique'." She winced. "Still, afterwards _I_ felt like I'd been thrown into a wall several time, especially because I stopped so abruptly. I think I was bordering on Aura depletion. My Semblance makes me fast, but it doesn't move air out of the way nor it shields _me_ from the air I have to go through."

"A dramatic suicidal technique to save your team from losing," gasped Nora, pointing at Ruby. "I don't know if I should praise you for your selflessness, or hate you for taking victory from the hands of the Pink Queen!"

"Let's just continue with the viewing," sighed Weiss, shaking her head.

 **Jaune quickly had his own smirk, "That may be true, Rosebud. But you forgot one thing."**

 **"What's that?" she asked confused.**

"He can control wind?" offered Neptune.

"He can shock her with lightning and make her lose focus?" Nora chided in as well.

"He can pull up the ground to create a barrier from the wind?" Yang threw in her own two cents.

"I bet a hundred Lien he stops her with a kiss," stated Sun, crossing his arms at all the violent hypothesis.

"I'll take that bet," replied all the three of them in synchrony.

Cinder shook her head. Idiots, all of them.

 **"I know how to stop you." He said with a devious tone. He leaned in and kissed her right next to her lips. Ruby stared wide eyed before she whole head turned bright red and her brain stopped working. Jaune pulled her close and had her in a bridal carry, he used his Semblance to lower them to the ground gently and stopped the cyclone. The food falling to the ground a second after. Pyrrha, Nora and a recovered Ren joined him. They looked over to Weiss and Blake on their feet again. "I think we win." Jaune said with a smirk.**

Grumbles were heard while money exchanged hands. Sun pocketed his hard-earned three hundreds and awed at the scene. "Aren't they so sweet?"

"Sun, please, stop," groaned Neptune, facepalming. "It's becoming embarrassing."

"Wait, you mean it already isn't?!" The blond was shocked. "I must increase the quantity and quality of my commentary then!"

"No!"

 **"How do you think that?" Weiss asked, not wanting to lose.**

No words were needed. Everyone turned to stare at the white-haired girl who shrugged embarrassedly. "Okay, my other self _is_ kinda grasping at the straws right now."

 **"Well, Yang is still skyward and we have captured your leader." Jaune said as he lifted Ruby in his arms half an inch. Weiss looked like she wouldn't give up. So, Jaune handed Ruby over to Pyrrha, "Hold her for a second?" She nodded and took the younger girl. Jaune made his way over to Weiss and picked up a pie. Weiss got into a defensive stance. Jaune stopped in front of her and handed her the pie. She looked at it with a raised eyebrow before she hesitantly took it. Jaune then closed his eyes, "Okay. Do it."**

"It's a trap!"

 **Weiss was shocked, "What?"**

 **Jaune opened one of his eyes, which were now their usual blue. "Hit me in the face with the pie. Then we can be even. I was the on that started of all of this, anyways."**

"Oh." Nora settled down. "No trap from our strategy genius? No trap for poor Nora? Come on! I could've sent her to fetch Yang!"

"I like to stay on the ground, thank you," the heiress replied sassily. "Besides, Yang was on her way back anyway."

"Hey! I don't have a Semblance that does basically everyone included platforms to jump on!" Yang defended herself.

"Are you referring to Weiss's Semblance as overkill?" Neptune questioned incredulously. "And what about _the Swordsman's_?!"

Yang shrugged. "The Swordsman isn't in our universe."

"Still, Ms Vasilias, with enough training almost any Semblance could appear incredibly powerful. Take your partner's, for example. Hardlight clones." Ozpin looked over to Sun, who nodded in confirmation. "While right now it takes him a lot to create a few clones, if he were to work on his Auric stamina and focus, he might be able to create an entire team of Hunter-level fighters for short periods of time, good for either thinning down the enemies or distracting them. It's hard to fight six Sun Wukongs at once, especially if the real one who's creating clones is _not_ within your reach."

"Or let's take Ms Rose's Semblance, which makes her faster as main power," continued Ironwood. "If she were to train hard enough, she'd reach a level of speed where she could analyse and counter your moves within zero point zero six seconds – I am basing this calculation on another Hunter with a speed-based Semblance in our records, for your information. With such quick reflexes, she might appear invincible."

"Or look at Blake," added Ruby. "She can already dodge most hits with her Semblance, even explosions or stuff like that. With training she would probably be able to dodge _all_ hits, and you can't defeat who or what you can't hit!"

"Being without a Semblance like Arc was before finding his is not a downside either," this time, surprisingly, it was Cinder who spoke up. "While it is true that you lack a superpower everyone else has, it makes you underestimated, gives you more time to train yourself, time you would normally spend learning, controlling and mastering your Semblance, but most of all people would always expect you to use it, and thus be taken off-guard when you never use it thorough the fight."

"Long story short, Bluehair, Semblance or no Semblance, it's the fighter who makes the weapon, not the other way around," Yang summed it up and dumbed it down for him, earning a few chuckles from the group.

 **Weiss looked from Jaune to the pie then back to Jaune. "You sure?" she asked. Jaune nodded before closing his eyes again. He waited to feel it and after a few seconds felt a very small amount of it on the tip of his nose. He opened his eyes and saw a little bit of cream on his nose. Weiss was standing close to him with two of her fingers raised and some of the cream still on them. She gave him a small smile, "Now we're even."**

Sun pointed at the screen. "I dare anyone to say that's not cute as hell."

"It's not," snorted Cinder, and immediately she was tackled to the ground by a very angry Sun Wukong. "What the-" Punch in the face. "Get-" Punch in the chest. "Serio-" Knee in the stomach, though that was unintentional. "Ugh!"

No one made any move to help either party.

 **Jaune smiled and wiped it off his nose and licked it off his thumb. "Thank you, Snow Angel."**

 **Soon the doors to the cafeteria were thrown open and in came a furious Goodwitch. She used her Semblance to clean all the food, put the tables back where they belong and repair all the damage. She fixed her glasses before saying in a barely restrained voice, "Children, please, do not play with your food."**

 **Nora then burped loudly and Jaune had to restrain himself from laughing. Until he remembered Yang and his eyes went wide. "Shit, Yang!" He quickly ran over to where** **she was knocked through the ceiling and grabbed a hold of a fire dust clip from the back of his belt. His eyes shifted to crimson just as Yang busted through the ceiling. He caught her in his arms and a decent size crater formed under his feet from the force of her fall. Yang slowly opened her eyes after not feeling the impact she was expecting. She saw Jaune smiling down at her as his eyes shifted back to normal. "Hey.** _ **Dropping**_ **in?"**

"Seriously why can't he just not being always perfect?!" Neptune screeched, but was drowned out by the collective groan at the pun.

 **Yang chuckled and smirked at him. "Nah, I just decided to** _ **crash**_ **this party."**

"Not you too Yang…" groaned Jaune.

 **Jaune chuckled this time before giving her the same smirk, "Well, you did make quite the** _ **impact.**_ **"**

"That's not me, I'd never pun like that," Jaune hurried to deny any relation to the Swordsman while everyone groaned even more.

 **She tilted her head slightly, "Hmmmm, true but I can be a real** _ **downer**_ **."**

"Oh come on…"

 **Jaune shook his head slightly, "You seem like a** _ **catch**_ **to me."**

"Just stop it please…" moaned Cinder from where she was fighting -read: toying- with Sun. "All these puns are _horrible_!"

 **She wrapped her arms around his neck, "Don't go** _ **falling**_ **for me, Hero."**

This time the groan was so loud it echoed in the whole crater. A few dragons deep down, near the magma, looked up in confusion at the sound. Why were those funny little humans groaning? Weren't they watching another universe? It was a great honour Khor rarely ever allowed to his co-workers in the fortress, much less random universelings. They should be happy to have been allowed as much. Maybe their minds were too weak to withstand the concept of worldwatching?

 **Jaune leant in closer to her and said just above a whisper, "What if I already have, Sun Fire." Yang's eyes went wide and she blushed. She wasn't sure if he was being serious or not. The shoe was on the other foot for once but she wasn't complaining. The two started to lean in closer but were interrupted when someone coughed. The two stopped and slowly turned to see their teams looking at them. Pyrrha had a jealous look, Weiss and Ruby had what could be described as conflicted, Ren and Nora had big smiles and approving looks, while Blake smiled at them with a smile full of understanding and support.**

This time, everyone frowned at the Swordsman. True, he _had_ said he loved Yang too and Blake _had_ said he was free to date the others too if they were okay with it, but still, trying to kiss a girl who's not even your girlfriend yet without telling her you actually _do_ have a girlfriend _and_ doing so in front of everyone else, including the girls you _know_ have a crush on you?

Well, let's just say they didn't find him really considerate -or smart- at the moment.

 **Jaune went to put Yang down but she gave him a kiss on the cheek before he could. "Thanks for the save, Hero."**

 **Jaune smiled, "Anytime." He looked at the others, "What happened to Goodwitch?"**

 **"Ozpin came by and the two left." Ren said and shrugged, "Something about meeting an old friend."**

 **The group then decided to head to the dorms to freshen up. As they were walking, they noticed a lot of Atlas ships flying outside. "Well, there goes the neighborhood." Jaune commented.**

"Hey!" protested said General while most teens snickered, Sun and Cinder too busy 'fighting' to heed their words.

 **As they were nearing the hallway where their dorms were located, Blake pulled him to the side. She pushed him against the wall and kissed him. Jaune was shocked but returned the kiss. After a while they broke apart. "What was that for?" Jaune asked curious.**

"And Blake starts pinning people to the wall to make out with them on their first day as a couple!" Yang teased her cheerfully. "What next? Chained to the bed on your first date? And then? Take it slow, kinky kitten, or you'll run out of ideas before the end of the week!"

Blake and Jaune blushed furiously, while everyone else laughed like there was no tomorrow. "I- I didn't _pin_ him to the wall, I was just pushing him away from the others!" the girl protested, much to everyone's further amusement.

 **Blake just smiled at him, "You asked if we were together-together, I gave you my answer."**

 **Jaune smiled at her but it soon fell, "You sure, Blake? I mean, am I really worth-" Before he could say more Blake put her finger over his lips.**

 _Smack_.

"Ow!" Jaune rubbed the now sore spot on his head. "What was that for?!"

"You have the habit of putting yourself down too, and you should stop," replied the 'assaulter'.

 **"Not another word. I want to be with you and you want to be with me. So, yes. Things will get better once you talk to Yang and Pyrrha, then we can figure out everything else. Okay?" Jaune nodded before he kissed her finger and gently nibbled it. Blake blushed at this. She took her hand away and leant against his chest. Jaune held her close while thinking, 'The second semester has barely started and things are already hectic. How on Remnant am I going to survive?'**

"Uh… you're not?" offered Nora, shrugging when everyone chuckled at her answer.

"I win!" The shout made everyone turn to stare in gaping shock at Sun who had, _somehow_ , managed to get the upper hand on Cinder, pinning her to the ground. Or maybe not, given the bored expression on the woman's face. "Admit it, demon's spawn! Fluff is better than anything!"

Cinder smirked. "Then why are you sitting on top of me, pinning with down with those thick, hard _arms_ of yours?" she cooed enticingly, making him turn a new shade of red previously undiscovered and scramble off of her. She made no move to get up. "Come on, you can't just leave a girl waiting… I know you're thinking about it…"

Sun basically ran back to the secluded corner of the balcony he'd hidden himself in last time and cowered behind Neptune, way too embarrassed to form a coherent response.

His blue-haired companion snickered. "What's with you and black-haired, amber-eyed girls?"

Despite their past history with Neptune, everyone couldn't help but laugh alongside him while Sun tried to make himself invisible and Cinder continued to smirk triumphantly.

 ** _Three main things. One, I'll say this again and in every chapter Sun and Cinder interact this way: I'm not shipping them together. Not seriously, at least._**

 ** _Two, the one who hit Jaune at the end, you can choose whoever you think did it, I'm not specifying it. It's probably one of the girls, or Ren._**

 ** _Three. The food fight. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved that scene and I laughed at Jaune's predicament like probably most other people. However, what I wrote IS true. It might be funny in a show, but for the characters that was 'real life', and in real life I wouldn't wish that on my friends._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	36. Chapter 35

**_Hello, it's been a while, hasn't it? And people say summer is usually vacations..._**

After the accident between Sun and Cinder, the gang decided to have a short break before continuing with the viewings, especially after they found out food wasn't the only thing to appear out of nowhere if they asked for it.

Before doing anything else, everyone had a snack. It had been a while since they last ate, and they were kinda hungry. Fast metabolisms and all that stuff due to their usual training regime.

Afterwards, each of them chose their own way to pass the time. Seeing as Weiss was busy with her friends, Winter decided to remain with Ironwood to talk about work. Goodwitch just started reading a book she'd had summoned, titled _Blood Moon_ , that despite the name was a book on constellations and lunar cycles. She was boring like that. Ozpin more or less strong-armed a drunk Qrow into playing chess with him, though to his frustration it was all too easy to win against his agent.

Cinder kept to herself, thinking about her new knowledge and how she could use it to her advantage once she went back to her Remnant – and by _her_ , she actually meant _her_ property.

The other teens divided into two groups. Ruby, Nora, Jaune, Yang and Neptune played _Grimm Infestation_ , a round-based miniature game taking place in a castle teeming with Grimm of all kinds. The final objective of the game was to either gather all the items necessary to seal the huge demon-like Grimm with a ritual or to kill it outright. Either option required a good amount of teamwork between the characters.

Ren, Blake, Pyrrha and Weiss, instead, played _Uno_ , a much less frenetic game that could still destroy friendships if not handled correctly. Blake had been the one to introduce the others to it, having played it lots of times in the White Fang. Ren had known about it, but never played. Pyrrha and Weiss, due to their fame and all things related to that, had never even heard of it.

Needless to be said, Sun was just awkwardly hanging around, trying to calm himself from Cinder's attack to his purity.

Eventually, things came to an end. Blake won _Uno_ via experience, tricking the others into letting her drop her last _+2_ card in reply to Weiss's own _+2_. _Grimm Infestation_ ended with the demon dead for good, given Ruby, Yang and Nora were playing. Jaune and Neptune had tried to go for the ritual, seeing as that was the original intention of the game – the fact the demon had stats and was thus killable had just been a side detail, not intended to be a possible win for the game.

Alas, those three girls thought otherwise.

Once everyone had put away the games -by throwing them into the crater, what a waste- and sat back down on the pillows, the screen finally lit up again.

 **After both JNPR and RWBY freshened up, they all made their way to the library. Jaune stopped off at the common room in the dorms. He started to bake the cookies he owed Ruby and decided to make them a lot bigger than normal; so instead of two dozen regular cookies, he made half a dozen giant cookies for her. When he was done with them, he made his way to the library and found both teams. RWBY was setting up a board game and the rest of his team was studying, except Nora who was sleeping. He handed Ruby the bag of cookies and she thanked him profusely by hugging him tightly. He was only saved when Yang mentioned the board game and she quickly jumped into her seat.**

"Ah, I remember that day," Neptune noted fondly, recalling how he'd crushed all of RWBY at that board game.

"Unfortunately, so do I," grumbled Weiss, instead recalling how she'd been fooled by his flirting.

Jaune rubbed his forehead, where a metal miniature Nevermore had smacked him. Yup, totally not forgotten. Though Neptune had had a point back then – libraries weren't meant for playing, especially not such noisy games. He wondered how they were still even alive, since the librarian chewed up and spat out everyone who broke even the smallest of rules regarding _'his'_ library.

Maybe Ozpin had yet again covered their butts like he'd done with the food fight?

 **Jaune sat down with his team and started reading a novel Blake suggested to him. It was about a man with two souls and it had caught his interest. He was just enjoying the relative peace, aside from the fact that Ruby and Yang were really getting into the game. Eventually, pieces started to fly and he tried his best to ignore it, until a piece hit him on his head. Jaune looked over and saw Ruby crying about losing, Yang happy for knocking Ruby out of the game, Weiss just seemed confused and Blake was just out of it. That's when Jaune got a devious smile and discreetly reached for one of his wind dust clips and absorbed a small amount of dust. His eyes shifted to the light green temporarily before he flicked his wrist at RWBY's table. A gust of wind came and flipped the board and the pieces went everywhere. They were all stunned and Yang wasn't happy.**

"No! Why?!" Yang cried, shocked by the sudden trick. "I was winning!"

"From what I recall you told Weiss to do something... just to activate your trap card and destroy her whole army, leaving her defenceless to your attacks," Blake replied flatly, glaring at her. "If that's not cheating, I don't know what is. It's like playing as two players at chess, and celebrating once you win."

"I was just telling her what she could've done!" Yang protested. "Pretending I didn't know what cards I had!"

"That's still cheating since you then saw my cards," grumbled Weiss, still sore about her army being destroyed so easily. She'd almost conquered all of Remnant!

"Ugh, fine!" snapped the blonde. "I won't help you any longer!"

"Good."

 **"No! I was winning!" She quickly looked at Jaune with an analyzing stare, he was just sitting there reading and didn't even register what happened. Yang got up and stood right beside him and glared down at him. "Jaune?"**

 **Jaune turned to her with a clearly fake innocence in his eyes, "Yes, Yang?"**

 **"Did you use your Semblance to flip the board?"**

 **Jaune gave her a shocked look, "Yang, of course not." He said with a hurt tone before looking back at his book. "I would never do that." He said, trying to hold back a smile.**

 **This didn't get past Yang. "Jaune, I was winning, why?"**

"Probably because of what Blake just said," shrugged the boy, acting as if the question had been directed at him. "And besides, you made Ruby cry – weren't you the one who took all of us aside to intruct us about it? What did you say... traumatize them for life if they make your sister shed even a single tear? Doesn't that work for you too?"

"No! I'm her sister!" she exclaimed. "You don't see me knocking you out when you make Ruby cry!"

Everyone gave her an 'are you effing kidding me?', the most deadpan they could. "Yeah, that's because we don't want to make her cry, and we are also careful to avoid your violent wrath," Ren replied truthfully. "You punched each of us at least once for being somehow involved with your hair getting damaged – we don't trust you not to punch us for making Ruby cry."

"Ugh, fine! My other self deserved it!" she finally admitted, her arguments defeated.

 **Jaune shrugged, "I was winning that shogi game against Ren when you caused me to flip the table. So, karma." He looked at her and gave her a teasing smile. Yang got Jaune into another headlock and was not letting go. Although, she wasn't squeezing nearly hard enough to hurt him so he just went back to his reading while Ruby and Weiss went about picking up the game.**

 **That was until Sun and some other guy with blue hair came around the corner. Sun gave them a wave, "Sup, losers?"**

 **Jaune looked up to him and gave him a two finger salute. "Hey, Sun. And losers? Wasn't I the one that saved your ass twice at the docks?" He smirked at him.**

"He's got a point," nodded Neptune. "You do kind of call everyone a loser just out of habit, regardless of whether they actually are or not."

"Sure, sure," snorted the Faunus. "Whatever."

 **Sun nodded for a second, "Fair enough. Anyways, I wanted to introduce you guys to my old friend." He said motioning to the blue haired guy.**

 **"Uh, aren't libraries for reading?" he asked.**

"Thank you!" exclaimed Ren. "Finally someone realizes it!"

"We're not _that_ bad…" grumbled Yang, then shrunk slightly when Ren and all the adults turned to stare at her in disbelief. "Okay, maybe we are…"

 **Ren quickly threw up his arms, "Thank you!" That woke up Nora who quickly followed up with, "Pancakes!" Jaune just chuckled at their antics.**

Nora grinned while her friends laughed at how ready she was to ask for pancakes. "Well, pancakes are the food of the gods, everyone should love them!" she proclaimed, sure of herself.

"Of course Nora," nodded Ren, who despite not being as obvious as her, did like pancakes as well.

"They're not bad, but they get tiring after a while, especially if there's too much syrup," commented Yang, shrugging.

 **Sun spoke up again, "Shut up. Don't be a nerd."**

 **The blue haired guy held a finger up to him. "Hey, 'intellectual', okay?" he turned to the rest of them and gave a small wave, "I'm Neptune Vasilias."**

 **RWBY introduced themselves and Weiss brought up a question, "So, Neptune, where are you from?"**

"Where did that come from?" asked Neptune. "Do you ask everyone where they are from?"

"No, but you were friends with someone I still considered a stowaway – chances were you came from the same place, which would mean I'd get to know where Sun came from," she replied, her use of logic earning herself a few eye rolls.

"You really need to learn how to loosen up, Weiss-Cream," huffed Yang, getting a 'hey' of outrage from the girl.

 **"Haven. Thanks for asking, Snow Angel." He answered with a charming smile and Weiss blushed faintly.**

 **Jaune laughed at that, trying to ignore the faint jealously he was feeling. "Small world. That's the nickname I've been calling her since day one." Jaune walked over to him and held his hand out to him, "Jaune Arc." The two shook hands and indicate the rest of his team, "This is my sister, Nora and brother, Ren. And my partner, Pyrrha." They all exchanged greetings and Sun made his way over to Blake.**

"Faint jealously?" Weiss repeated, amused.

"That's the Swordsman," shrugged their own Jaune. "Me? I was pretty much both mad and resigned when he said that."

Pyrrha reached over and comfortingly patted his back. "Come on, it's not so bad. You just chose the wrong girl."

"Yeah, you thought the Ice Queen was a Snow Angel," agreed Ruby, much to Weiss's irritation.

 **"I never took you as the board game type." He said cheerfully and clearly flirty.**

"That's because I'm not."

 **Blake just rolled her eyes and gently pushed him away. "I think I'm done with playing actually. I'll see you guys later." She said as she walked away. Sun had a hurt expression and everyone else was giving a look as Nora just shrugged and added, "Women."**

"I'm one, I should know!" the hammer maiden exclaimed cheerfully.

 **Jaune sighed and went up to Sun, "Sun, can we talk? In private?" He said while walking to him.**

"Am I going to be beaten black and blue now?" sighed the poor monkey Faunus, already wincing pre-emptively.

"No, I don't think so, not unless you don't take a hint," replied Ren. "It's more likely he'll just tell you she's taken."

 **Sun looked at him in confusion before nodding, "I guess so."**

 **Jaune took the two of them a few rows of bookshelves down before he thought that they were far enough away that no one would overhear them. He leant up against the bookshelf. "So, you like Blake." He stated, not asking.**

 **Sun just sighed, "Yeah but looks like I'm not making any progress." He looked at Jaune with hope, "Think you could give me tips?"**

 **Jaune just rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Sorry, Sun. But Blake's already with someone."**

"Called it," Ren stated flatly.

"Ren, shut up," grumbled Sun. "We all already knew it was gonna happen."

Nora blinked. "Then why did you-"

"Let's go on watching this thing."

 **Sun's mood dropped, "Oh. Is he at least a good guy?" he asked.**

 **Jaune shrugged slightly, "I would say yes but that would be bias."**

 **Sun just looked at him in confusion before it clicked, "Wait a minute, it's you!"**

 **"Shhh." He said as he brought a finger to his lips. "Not so loud. Yes, me and Blake are together. We literally just got together but our situation is complicated so we are trying to keep it quiet for now."**

 **Sun nodded, "Oh, I see. Sorry man, if I knew I wouldn't have hit on her." He said embarrassed.**

"Same, I'd never hit on someone else's girl," nodded Sun. "May be a stowaway but I have morals."

"Which obviously don't include breaking laws and similar," Weiss remarked while giving him the stink eye.

"Hey, rules are meant to be broken," he defended himself.

Nora nodded. "Just like legs!"

 **Jaune just waved it off, "It's fine, Sun. You didn't know and I trust Blake, so no harm done. Besides, I'm only telling you because she'd be the one having issues with you flirting with her, not me." He chuckled, "Trust me, you don't wanna be on her bad side."**

 **Sun chuckled, "Yeah, I noticed that at the docks. So, we're cool?" he asked with his fist extended.**

 **Jaune quickly bumped it, "Frosty." He said with a smile. The two rejoined the rest of the group. Neptune took Blake's spot in the game and Sun was retelling the tale of the docks for Nora's amusement. Jaune then told Sun about all the stories that his team and RWBY had gotten into with Yang and Ruby adding their own input from time to time. Eventually, Neptune completely schooled RWY at Kingdoms of Remnant and they decided to call it for now. RWY went back to their dorm while Neptune and Sun decided to go check out the campus. JNPR was just relaxing until Jaune noticed that Ruby forgot her game. He checked his scroll and saw it was close to when he said he'd help Team CRDL. He got up and picked up the game. "Guys, I need to meet up with Cardin and I'm going to return this." He said indicating the game in his hand. "I'll see you guys at dinner."**

"Didn't I rush back to find it?" Ruby wondered, confused.

Neptune grumbled something about the Swordsman messing with everything others did before he was shushed by his best friend.

"It's an alternative universe, Ms Rose, not everything is the same," Ozpin reminded her, taking a sip from his mug.

 **"Alright, try to enjoy yourself." Pyrrha said and Jaune nodded to her.**

"Meeting up with Cardin or returning the game?" Yang joked with a smile.

"The latter is the more probable of the two," shrugged Jaune.

 **Jaune made his way to the dorms and was about to knock on RWBY's door when her saw it wasn't closed all the way and he could hear Blake almost yelling, "Our enemies aren't just going to sit around and wait for graduation. They're out there, somewhere, planning their next move, and none of us know what it is, but it's coming! Whether we're ready or not!"**

 **It was quiet until he heard Ruby speak next, "Okay, all in favor of becoming the youngest Huntresses to single-handedly taking down a corrupt organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale, say aye."**

"Did it seriously go like that?" Ren asked, bewildered. Aside from RWBY and SN, everyone else was staring at the four girls in pure shock, like they'd said something that went beyond stupid.

"Yeah, why?" Ruby replied innocently.

"Because that's so crazy even _I_ wouldn't think of it!" exclaimed Nora, jumping up and waving her arms around. "You are skilled but compared to professionals you're like children playing warriors! And dozens of professionals have failed!"

"They didn't know what I know," Blake replied stubbornly. "And the fact we're young will make them believe we can't be Hunters."

"Hunters with illusions Semblances and infiltrates exist, Ms Belladonna," Ironwood reminded her harshly, glaring at Ozpin as if to dare him to defend his students' choice now. "What you're doing is extremely dangerous-"

"We're Huntresses, danger is in the job!" exclaimed Yang, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Wrong!" the General shot back unimpressed. "You are _trainees_ , first years to be correct, and danger is among the _downsides_ of the job and should only be considered in case a safe operation goes wrong, or if lives are in immediate danger."

"Lives _are_ in immediate danger!" Blake shouted.

"Your brains are in immediate danger!" the man roared back, unafraid of showing aggressivity. "You should've informed the nearest Hunter of your worries and then do as you were instructed. Being a Hunter requires discipline! If you do things on your own, you might interfere with an actual Hunter operation, blowing their cover, you could get people killed, and caused untold damage to properties – and I can assure you, people aren't happy when their whole house has been trashed by wandering wannabe Huntresses who didn't know how to redirect a fight in a safer area."

"We know how to do our job!" Yang scowled, furious at her skill being questioned.

"Then please explain the five dozens of deaths that occurred when you purposefully brought Torchwick and his mecha into a highly trafficked area, the local highway, uncaring of how many civilians he trampled to get to you?" Goodwitch asked frostily.

"That wasn't us, that was him!" Ruby protested as well.

"Hadn't you led him there because you needed open spaces to fight him, it wouldn't have happened," Goodwitch stated firmly. "Despite what the media say, you _are_ responsible for those deaths."

"Let me ask you a question," Ironwood continued, still furious but masking it. "Hypothetical situation. If you were to know that a group of Grimm are heading towards a frontier settlement, while you've been ordered to guard another settlement, what would you do?"

"Go and face those Grimm of course, to save all those people!" exclaimed Ruby, shocked that there was even a choice to be made.

"Okay. While you're gone, a White Fang group attacks the first settlement and between terrorists and attracted Grimm, by the time you're back, everyone's dead," concluded Ironwood. "How does that make you feel?"

"That wasn't fair!" protested Blake. "You didn't give us all the information!"

"And you think you know everything about what you did with the White Fang? You think you saw the full equation as it was?" the General asked, incredulous. "No you didn't! You acted impulsively! Just like in the example – instead of trusting your superiors, you went off on your own. Now, _some times_ and I can't stress enough how it's _some times_ , disobeying can be the best thing to do. But rebellions like that only bring chaos! Hunters are not above the laws, they should be the first to listen to orders!"

"Why can't we stop evil when we can?!" exclaimed Yang.

"Because the people are already wary of Hunters as it is, without trainees going around playing God and acting as if they took orders only from themselves – that would cause mass panic and chaos," replied Ozpin. "And panic would lead the Grimm to us in drones."

"Even I knew that," Cinder rolled her eyes.

Team RWBY pouted and grumbled at that like scolded children – which they were. Sun and Neptune wisely chose to remain silent and not mention their part in the whole mess.

 **Jaune had enough at that point and pushed the door open before leaning against the door frame, "How about nay?" They were all stunned with him standing there. Before they spoke almost at once.**

 **"Jaune, why are you here?" Ruby asked nervously.**

 **"How much did you hear?" Weiss asked almost accusingly.**

 **"What do you mean, nay?" Yang asked confused. Blake was just staring at Jaune, like a deer in headlights.**

"Busted," commented Jaune, hoping that the Swordsman would manage to talk some sense into them.

The girls glared at him.

 **Jaune got off the door frame and stepped into the room. "In order. You forgot this and I was returning it to you." Jaune put the game on one of the desks. "I heard Blake yell and Ruby's little offer. And I said nay because that is by far the dumbest thing I've heard."**

 **Blake got her senses back at that and got angry, "It's dumb to try and stop people from doing terrible things."**

 **Jaune just looked her in the eyes, not amused. "No. It's dumb to think that a group of four can take down an entire group of terrorists." His voice had an edge.**

"Especially when teams of fully-fledged Hunters have tried and failed before," Winter added as well.

"Will you drop that already?!" exclaimed Yang, irritated.

"No, you have to learn that what you've done was one of the worst thing you could've ever done!"

 **"What, you don't trust us?" Yang said with an edge as well.**

 **"This has nothing to do with trust." Jaune said with his voice still holding that edge. "Do you honestly think that you four can do this? Fully trained Huntsmen and Huntresses have been trying to stop them since they turned violent and they've had zero effect. People with more experience and skill than you, I may add. Yeah, you're skilled, some of the best in the first years but again we are** _ **first years**_ **." Weiss looked away, silently agreeing with his point. "Thinking you can single-handedly do this is not smart, its arrogant and that'll get you killed."**

"Exactly," nodded Goodwitch, glaring at Ozpin when he opened his mouth to speak.

He wisely closed it.

"Stop talking to them like they can hear you!" exclaimed Yang.

 **"You don't know that." Ruby tried to defend them.**

 **"I do!" He shouted, cutting her off. "The White Fang aren't regular thugs. They'll kill all of you without a second thought, especially you, Weiss. It doesn't matter how skilled you are, out there all it takes is just one miscalculation, one misstep or even just being unlucky to wind up dead."**

"He's right, and not just about that, but about who you'll fight in the future," Ren spoke up softly. "There are many good people in the world, but many bad people as well, to various degrees of evilness. Some just want to kill. Some prefer taking everything away. You aren't ready to face either."

"But killing is wrong…" Ruby protested weakly, but looking around, she found no support from the others.

"It may be, but it's you or them," replied Ironwood. "It's always hard to take a life. But sometimes it's the only possible way."

 **They were all quiet until Blake spoke up, "Jaune. We aren't Gin and Amber." As soon as she said that, Jaune aura exploded outward and illuminate the room. They were all stunned until the light faded but the could see Jaune barely holding back his anger.**

"Wrong thing to say," winced Neptune.

"Yeah, no kidding," Sun immediately agreed with him.

"I just hope nothing will go awry," sighed Pyrrha, knowing that in _their_ dimension, things had indeed gone awry.

 **"You're right. You aren't, you're still alive." He said barely keeping the anger out of his voice. "Answer me this. If it was a White Fang member or you. Could you kill them? Would you kill them?" He said this and everything went quiet, deathly quiet. "Because if you choose to do this, it will eventually come down to that. They have no qualms with killing you and if you get in their way enough, they will try with everything they have to kill you four. And if it comes down to that, could you kill them before they kill you? Or someone you love?" They didn't say anything and Jaune made his way to the door but stopped in the doorway. "Do this and eventually you'll get blood on your hands and that'll change you. No matter how strong, smart, skilled or any other adjective you wanna use. It'll change everything and you'll have to keep looking at yourself in the mirror every day and accept that." He turned back around to them and looked them in the eyes. "That's a decision you'll have to make and live with. For better or worse. Just think all of this over before you decide anything. Because if you decide to do this and get into a life or death situation with them and hesitate." He looked away but his eyes lingered on Blake for a few extra seconds. "You'll end up dead. And it'll be the rest of us that'll have to live with it." He said sadly before he closed the door and walked away.**

"That is something most Hunters fail to take into consideration," Qrow nodded, for once serious and composed. "And… that's why Hunters shouldn't have families. Leaving someone behind is always painful for them more than for you."

Ruby and Yang were drained of all emotions at his words, both remembering fully well how, for a short while, they had hated Summer for having gone on mission when she could've been a teacher like their father and uncle. Indeed, those who were left behind were the one to suffer.

"And remember – taking a life will always change you," the General added as well. "Sometimes to the point of going insane. I've had novices who had to be locked up after trying to cut off their own hands because 'they were covered in blood'. Killing isn't easy, and children of your age shouldn't have to think about doing something like that, much less actually having to do it."

 **Jaune was walking down the hall, his mind was everywhere but where he was. He was so distracted that he bumped into someone and nearly knocked them down. He managed to catch them before they hit the ground though. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" he looked down to see that the person was a beautiful woman with long black hair and with amber eyes. He helped her stand as she was speaking.**

"Hey, it's Cinder!" Ruby exclaimed before frowning. "But why wasn't I the one to bump into her?"

"Because he returned the game you were going to fetch," Weiss explained softly, still subdued by the earlier argument.

Cinder scoffed softly. She didn't know what to expect when she'd scoured the dorms to check out the students – but she had definitely been disappointed. Meeting someone such as the Swordsman, almost twice as powerful as Pyrrha Nikos, would've been much more welcome… and much more annoying, at the same time.

 **"It's alright. But you should be careful." She said with a smile.**

 **Before he could say anything, her silver haired friend walked up next to him, "I suggest you watch yourself." He said with an aggressive tone.**

"What's his deal?" asked Jaune, confused.

"Must be different in that reality," noted Cinder, raising an eyebrow. "Mercury is actually only a jackass to his opponents or his teammates. Otherwise, he's pretty mild-mannered."

The others just shrugged. Not like they cared anyway.

 **Jaune just looked him in the eyes with a raised eyebrow. He was in no mood for this, "First, it was an accident and I apologized. Second, she accepted the apology and she wasn't hurt. Third, I'm not intimidated easily, so I suggest you get out of my face." He stared back and said the last part with just an aggressive tone. His hand was hovering above his water dust clips, just in case.**

"Man, someone's in a snappy mood," teased Nora, earning flat looks from everyone. She pouted. "Okay, okay, you're right, he's in no mood for jokes… killjoys, all of you."

"Nora, the Swordsman is clearly emotionally conflicted, it's no time for jokes," Ren gently but firmly reminded her.

"Fiiiine… but you're gonna bake me pancakes once we go back to Beacon."

"Deal."

 **The two just stared each other down until the green haired girl said something to him, "Mercury, come on." Mercury looked at her before looking back at him and walking away with a scowl.**

 **His attention was brought back to the black haired girl in front of him. "I'm sorry about him. He can be protective."**

 **Jaune took a deep breath before speaking calmly, "No harm. Not in the best mood myself. Anyways, we haven't met." He held out his hand, "I'm Jaune."**

 **She took it, "Cinder. And they are Emerald and Mercury." Jaune nodded to them. "We're actually visiting from Haven."**

"Then you're completely in the wrong building," rebutted Sun, still feeling slightly annoyed at the 'prank' she'd pulled on him earlier. That woman had no shame whatsoever, using her body to tease him was one of the lowest he'd ever thought a woman could go. And he didn't mean Yang's kind of body teasing, he meant it in a Cinder kind of way.

Cinder rolled her eyes. As if she hadn't the map of Beacon already. She'd done it on purpose. Still, she had to stick to her lie, "Now I know. Back then, it was my first time in Beacon. How was I supposed to know?"

"By asking a Professor or consulting the online map," replied Goodwitch, ever the stern teacher, earning herself subtle and hidden eye rolls from all around. "I saw those." Well, not so hidden then.

 **Jaune nodded before taking his hand back, "For the festival, right? But the exchange students have their own dorms though."**

 **"I guess we got turned around." Emerald said.**

 **Jaune waved it off, "Happens. Your dorms are just east of here."**

 **Cinder gently laid her hand on his chest, "Thank you, Jaune. Maybe we'll see you around?" she said in a sultry tone.**

Ruby and Pyrrha both groaned at the sudden new competition.

 **Jaune's eyes widened slightly before his mind went to Blake, Yang, Pyrrha and with a mild shock to him, Ruby and Weiss. Jaune shook his head slightly. He may be annoyed with them but still. "Sorry, Cinder, but I'm in a relationship. But I'd never turn down an offer for a new friend."**

 **Cinder had a look of mild shock before she had a small smile, "Good to know. See you later, Jaune." She took her hand away and walked past him. Emerald and Mercury followed with Mercury bumping into Jaune's shoulder. Jaune just ignored him and kept walking. He also missed what Cinder said next, "Very interesting."**

Perking up, Ruby and Pyrrha glanced at Cinder, who was looking as uninterested as humanly possible. After a second, they evaluated her as 'non-threatening' and just moved on.

The others chuckled at how bluntly the Swordsman had put it. The boy didn't mince words, it seemed.

* * *

 **Jaune made his way to the locker rooms. He grabbed his swords and armor. As he put on the new rerebrace he got from Pyrrha, he smiled. It felt like a missing piece of him was returned. He walked out and saw all of Team CRDL waiting for him. They decided to have four short matches, the match would end when either person lost a third of their aura. Jaune fought with all of them and found a few flaws in their fighting styles and gave them a tip or two.**

"Of course he'd also be the teacher," Neptune scoffed.

"Will you quit it already?" Jaune finally snapped, flapping his wings and sending a strong gust of wind at the blue-haired teen, bowling him over. "If you want to keep bitching, jump through the screen and start bitching at the Swordsman! You do realize there's literally nothing we can do? It's like bitching on at a movie!"

There was a second of silence, then…

"Jaune, language!" Ruby scolded him, holding out her swear jar. Sweat-dropping, Jaune placed three Lien in the jar and rolled his eyes.

"One day, Ruby, when you'll become foul-mouthed too, I'll start making you pay me back for those," he grumbled before Yang slugged his arm. He cradled it protectively. "Ouch! Yang! What the hell was that for?!"

"That was a congratulatory punch, Archangel dear," she smirked as everyone groaned. "You've finally started to grow a spine."

"I already have one, I can assure you," Jaune rolled his eyes. "And besides, I make my fair share of snappy comeback or sarcastic replies when I want to – I just don't add the physical violence you seem to love so much."

"That's the having a spine part," Yang stated matter-of-factly. "Sarcastic remarks mean having a brain."

Jaune rolled his eyes again. "Sure. Does this mean you don't have a brain?" His cheek earned him another punch, and he sulked as he held his hurting arm.

 **Russel was pretty quick on his feet and was good with his daggers but he had the tendency to pull back too soon if things got heated, instead of capitalizing on the opportunities that would arise. Sky had decent acrobatics and unique attack styles with his halberd but he had little in the defensive department. Dove seemed to be the most skilled out of CRDL, his only problem was that it was obvious on when he would choose to use his swordsmanship or his long range capabilities. Cardin's strength and explosives were still a powerful combination, but his only problem was his temperament. Jaune suggested he try to channel his anger instead of just letting it control him. They all accepted his points and agreed to work on it. They thanked him and they went their separate ways.**

"Booooring," moaned Nora, unimpressed. "Why didn't he break their legs?"

"It was only a friendly spar, Nora," Pyrrha reminded her.

"Yes, but those were Team CRDL – that's basically a freebie!"

Pyrrha tried, but she couldn't find anything to counter than one.

 **Jaune was going to head to the cafeteria after he put his weapons and armor back. But remembering what happened between him and RWBY, he decided to avoid that. He made his way to the common room and made himself some tea. He decided that since he was already having trouble sleeping he shouldn't drink any coffee for the night. He filled a mug and left the kettle on the stove. He sat down on the couch and went back to his book while sipping at his herbal tea. It was peaceful until he got a message on his scroll. He put his tea on the coffee table in front of him and checked his scroll. It was from Pyrrha.**

 **Pyrrha: Jaune, where are you? I don't mean to bother you but you said you'd be here for dinner. Is everything alright?**

"Mama hen, huh?" Yang smirked at Pyrrha, who just shrugged.

"Someone has to be the caring one of the group," she replied without any trace of embarrassment. "Ren keeps us sane, Nora keeps us unique, Jaune leads us."

Yang snorted. "So you're the mother of the team… didn't know you were into incest, Pyr."

Several dozens shoes and boots of various kinds were summoned just for the occasion and thrown at the blonde by just about everybody, including her dear sister, effectively burying the girl under the footwear pile.

 **Jaune thought for a bit and decided to not tell her about what happened with RWBY.**

 **Jaune: Sorry for not telling you. I'm at the common room and getting to a very good part of my book. I wanted to read in peace and that really doesn't go well with Nora.**

Nora pouted. "I'm not that bad!"

"No you aren't," admitted Jaune. "Plus we've learned to tune you out when we really need to focus and you're being loud. But maybe in that universe you are."

"He's right, Nora, you may be… energetic and very peculiar, but you're not constantly pestering us or something like that," Pyrrha quickly agreed. She even supported her crush on the Fearless Leader! That alone made them sisters.

 **He sent the message and put his scroll on the table. He drank a bit more of his tea and kept reading. But he was interrupted when he heard a familiar voice. "Hi."**

 **He looked to see Blake standing in the doorway, looking nervous. "Hey." He replied before he went back to reading. He pointed at the kettle on the stove. "There's tea, if you want."**

 **"Thanks." Was all she said as she walked over to the stove. She got a cup and sat down beside him. They were in silence for a while until she spoke up. "Can we talk?"**

"No, but we can both stay silent, very awkwardly so, until one of the two doesn't break and starts talking on their own," joked Sun before everyone looked at him. "Uhh… wrong thing to say?"

"It wasn't really the time for a joke," Neptune nodded condescendingly.

Sun's expression fell, but he just sighed and shrugged.

 **Jaune marked the page and put his book down beside his tea and looked to her. "Yeah." The two looked at each other for a while until Jaune sighed, "Would you have told me if I didn't find out?" She looked away slightly and Jaune already knew the answer but it still hurt. "I thought so." He started to get up until he felt her grab his forearm. He looked and she was looking at him with a sad look in her eyes.**

 **"Please." That was all she said and he sat back down. She was still holding onto his arm but she didn't say anything.**

"That's actually what hurt the most when you went on your own in our universe, not the danger you put yourselves in since you came back safely, but the fact you didn't trust us with coming with you while you trusted Sun and Neptune, two people who you knew for just a few days tops," Jaune frowned, not softening his glare even when the girls looked at him and the rest of his team apologetically. "I know you feared we would stop you, but we are supposed to be friends – friends who have each other's back. And then when you went off to Mountain Glenn, it was painfully obvious it was another one of your 'missions'. And again we were left not just behind, but _in the dark_. Do you realize just how worried we've been?"

The four girls had nothing to say, aside the apologies they'd already uttered. What could they even say? Sorry we trusted two almost strangers just because they barged into our dorm and didn't try to stop us, instead of the friends we've known for three months more or less? Yeah, they knew that wouldn't go really well.

Eventually, Jaune just sighed and sat back down. What hurt the most, though, was that he didn't even ask them to bring them in the know the next time, as if he knew it was already a lost cause.

 **"Blake. I understand why you wouldn't want to tell me about this mission of yours but you can't hide something like that from me." He looked down at the table. "We're a couple now and we need to be honest and to be able to trust each other. If you did this and I didn't know..." He stopped for a second. "If you got hurt or worse, what do you think that would do to me?"**

 **She wrapped her arms around his and rested her forehead onto his shoulder, "I'm sorry." Was all she said in a shaky voice.**

"It's so easy to be sorry afterwards," Ironwood murmured softly, too soft for anyone but Blake to hear thanks to her Faunus hearing. "But how those who suffer the loss of their loved ones don't want apologies – the only thing they want cannot be granted them. Saying sorry never fixes anything… proving you're sorry and trying to change is what matters."

Blake looked down, thinking about the man's words. In a way, it was the reason why she'd fought so hard against the White Fang.

 **Jaune in response brought up his other hand and held one of her's. "I know." They were quiet for a bit until he continued. "Blake, I don't like to pry but if you could explain to me why this is so important to you, then maybe this would be easier to work through."**

 **She was quiet and was still leaning on his shoulder before she nodded slightly. "I'll try." She didn't look up but she kept talking. "You know about five years ago, the original leader of the White Fang stepped down and a new leader stepped up?" Jaune nodded. "Well, that original leader is my father."**

Everyone looked at her, shocked speechless. She blushed in embarrassment and looked away.

Sun was the first to regain his bearings. "Girl, that basically makes you a princess!"

"Of course!" Ironwood exclaimed, slapping his face with his palm. "The daughter of Kali and Ghira Belladonna… you are identical to your mother."

It was Blake's turn to look shocked. "You knew my parents?"

"Yes. They got themselves into lots of trouble protesting for Faunus equality," nodded the General. "I believe that's actually how they met – in a shared cell after they'd blocked the traffic for a few hours before the police forced them to move. Those two sat on the police cars in defiance and were brought in for a night in prison."

Chuckles rang out at how her parents had met, and Blake blushed in embarrassment once again.

"Aww, that's so sweet!" cooed Sun. "Two steadfast supporters of the Faunus rights, imprisoned separately and leaving together!"

"Actually, from what I heard, at first they couldn't stand each other," chuckled the General. "Kali knocked Ghira out within the fourth hour sharing a cell."

 **Jaune looked at her shocked. "That's what you meant when you said you were born into it?"**

 **She nodded, "I got into an argument with my parents before I came to Vale. I called them so many things, terrible things. I joined my old partner and mentor, he always assured me that we were doing was for the betterment of the world. And I believed him." Her words were a mix of pain and venom. "My family's creation has turned into something so evil and I helped it." Jaune could feel his shoulder getting wet, "I helped it."**

No one commented on that one. It wasn't like she was wrong – though at least she was trying to atone for her past mistakes.

 **Jaune pulled her into a hug and she started to cry into his chest. He didn't say a word, just held her and let her cry. Eventually she stopped and they just held each other. "You want to do this to atone for your mistakes and to try to return the Fang to what it was, right?" She nodded with her head still on his chest. "I understand why you want this, Blake. But this is still crazy and stupid." She tightened her grip on his shirt before he sighed, "But I know you're too stubborn to be dissuaded. Hell, you're dating me and are okay with me having more than just you as my girlfriend."**

"Not sure if that's being stubborn, lewd, or just plain weird," Nora stuck out her tongue, seemingly disgusted.

"It's not unheard of," shrugged Qrow. "Harems, polyandrous and polygamous relationships actually exist in Remnant. Since we are so few, people are like 'Yes! Screw each other! Do it!', so it's not actually so weird."

"I bet you'd like a harem yourself," Winter spat, disgusted.

Qrow shrugged. "I'm not one for commitment. Though as a one-time thing? Meh, why not? Might be interesting."

The older Schnee retched at the very thought while everyone else just gagged a little. After Winter managed to stop herself from vomiting, the viewing continued.

 **She looked up at him in disbelief and she still had some tears falling. He gently wiped them away. "So if you decide to do this, I want you to agree to two things: One, at least let me join you girls. Just in case things go wrong. And second, just promise me you'll come back safe. I can't lose you." He pulled he closer.**

"Why not our _team_ , dear Jaune?" Pyrrha's voice was dangerously sweet, and everyone was sweating bullets.

Jaune, however, was either denser than a black hole or just used to it. "Not me: him. I would've called you guys. I guess he's so confident in his own skill he thinks that'd be enough to at least let them escape safely. He doesn't care about completing the mission, only about their health. Which means he will just help them if they are in danger."

Pyrrha huffed at the good point he raised. At least he wasn't _that_ reckless.

Though he had sneaked into Beacon with no Aura nor training, so scratch that, Jaune _was_ stupidly reckless.

 **She nodded with a small smile, "I promise and if you wanted to tag along, you just had to ask."**

 **The two smiled and leant in for a kiss. When they separated, Jaune spoke. "So, wanna head to the cafeteria?"**

 **"We could. Or we could just enjoy our time together." She said with a smile and pulled out the sequel to Ninjas of Love.**

"Pervert," Weiss commented, slightly disgusted.

"It's art! Literature!" Blake exclaimed, fed up with people calling her books porn.

"Sure," Yang rolled her eyes.

Jaune chose not to say anything. Those books definitely weren't 'art'. More like trash any parent would burn on the spot if they ever saw their children have.

Except his mother. His mother would melt them with acid. The books or the children, depending on her mood at the moment of the discovery.

 **Jaune just smiled, "Oum, I love you." He laid down with her laying on his chest. They started reading and Jaune removed her bow and started to scratch behind her ears. She started to purr, until she felt him kiss the back of her ear and she blushed profusely. She looked up at him shyly and he just smiled at how cute she was. They eventually had to separate when their teams showed up, they wanted to keep their relationship quiet until Jaune had the chance to talk to Yang and Pyrrha. But the time they had was perfect in their minds.**

"Rectification: you're both perverts," Weiss corrected her earlier statement.

"Leave me out of this one!" protested Jaune. "I don't read those!"

"Didn't you say you were friends with the author?" inquired Nora, grinning.

He shrugged. "Yes, but that doesn't mean I like or even just read his works. Ninjas of Love isn't even his only work, just the most famous."

"He does have a point," nodded Pyrrha, backing him up. "Just because he knows the author doesn't mean he's read the books."

"Yeah, only Blake and I have read those books!" Ruby exclaimed cheerfully before total silence fell over the group.

Over the sound of a scythe being deployed, Yang asked, strangely calm, "Ruby, why did you read them?"

Ruby shrugged innocently. "Blake left them around."

The poor Faunus tried to beg for mercy, but neither sister nor uncle had any.

 ** _I don't know what to put in the ANs any more. Heck, I'm considering just stopping outright... at first I spoke about life but now that ev-_**

 ** _Freaking genius, that's what my subconscious is! Speaking of my life, I'm starting to try and learn Arabic on Duolingo! Still learning the letters though so don't try to review in Arabic to test my knowledge, I'd just answer with ?_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	37. Chapter 36

**_Well, three months... long time no see?_**

It had been half an hour since Hell had begun.

It had been half an hour since chaos had reigned supreme.

It had been half an hour since Qrow and Yang found out that Ruby had read Ninjas of Love.

It had been half an hour since Blake had been found guilty, and the fitting punishment chosen by the two angry relatives had been trying to kill her on the spot.

Normally, Blake had more stamina than that. Running from White Fang and all of that, sort of gave her quite the speed and lots of energy. Only, this time she wasn't running from thugs who could barely hurt her, this time it was the righteous wrath of _Qrow freaking Branwen_ and _Yang goddamned Xiao bloody Long_!

Hence why her stamina betrayed her by going down much much faster than it should've. It surely wasn't a pleasant surprise.

However, just as she finally tripped and fell, exhausted, on the cold, unforgiving ground, the white tiger, Sable, decided she'd had enough. She stood up and stretched -for felines, morning stretches were _very_ important- before looking at the menacingly advancing forms of Qrow and Yang. Bristling slightly, she roared, breathing two blue fireballs in their direction.

They turned _just_ in time to receive them square in the face. Apparently unharmed, they just dropped like rocks, and began to snore loudly, much to people's chagrin and amusement.

Sable then calmly walked over to Blake, picked her up by her clothes, and dropped her next to Jaune before laying down behind them, as if they were her kittens. Ruby was laughing her head off at the whole scene. Weiss too was hiding a smile. The others, not familiar enough with Team RWBY, just accepted it was a RWBY thing and moved on.

Jaune turned to look at her. "…Considering you asked me to call you 'Micia', which is translated as 'kitten', I think Sable might have misunderstood something."

"Do you want me to pull a Yang and punch you?" He rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Is there _anyone_ here who doesn't want to hurt me?"

Complete, utter silence was his answer.

He sighed in defeat.

Soon, Qrow and Yang woke up from their unplanned nap and both shot Sable a nasty glare, which were completely ignored by the giant tiger. Blake pressed herself closer to Sable and Jaune at seeing the two still-angry relatives.

That reminded Jaune of something.

"Uh… Professor Ozpin? Could I talk with you for a moment, before we go on with the viewings?" he asked out loud, surprisingly everyone, including the man himself.

"Sure, Mr Arc," the Headmaster nodded calmly, though he too wondered why the sudden need for conversation.

Just like he'd done with Phoenix, Jaune brought Ozpin out of sight and out of earshot before speaking his mind.

And boy what he had on his mind…

"I know this is going to sound very weird and possibly embarrassing but… I kind of… need your help. For love advice." Seeing Ozpin's quite shocked face, he hurried to correct himself. "I mean- I know Phoenix would be more than willing to but he's different! He's someone who can see the Multiverse and has probably seen everyone getting with everyone in every possible way, which probably kind of desensitised him to the psychological part of actually _getting with someone_. I mean, the last time I asked for advice he basically told me not to worry myself too much and to do what I felt was right. Which is absolutely correct, I know, but which… how can I say…"

"Lacks details," Ozpin helped him out, now seeing the boy's reasoning. "It's good advice, but you're so new at this and so nervous, that you need someone to help you more specifically, while Phoenix prefers to help you vaguely because he doesn't want to influence your decision. You don't want someone to tell you what to do, but to tell you what choices do you have instead of saying you have infinite choices."

"I wouldn't put it exactly like that but… I guess you're right," nodded Jaune, lowering his head. "It's just… the girls, all of them, are friends. Some more than others. Before coming here I've always ever thought of them as friends, no matter what kind of fantasy I held while courting Weiss. Then they started to like me and not in a platonic way. But… I don't really know if _I_ changed…"

"You feel like the girls' infatuation with you is the only important variable in this equation, and that no one has asked you whether _you_ felt the same or not. You think all of them are incredible and you think that you _might_ fall for any of them, but it's not something set in stone or already happened," Ozpin once again saved him from the need of explaining himself. "Because they aren't just declaring to like you, they are also acting on those feelings and you are slowly getting uncomfortable since you haven't figured out your feelings yet. Am I right in my assumption?"

 _'I hate that he's so smart. Yet again, his intelligence kept me in Beacon even without training, and I guess there must be a reason he's headmaster…'_ Jaune thought to himself before replying. "Y-Yeah… I mean… One girl, without having to worry about watching other universes? That'd take me hours at the very least, if not days. Especially if we were friends before. But _three_? Possibly _five_? I… I'm sorry, it's just too much to deal with. It feels like I'm trying to lift something and someone keeps piling weight on it." He sighed. "Not to mention their actions… Yang and Ruby are too carefree to really bother with restraining themselves. And Blake… Ninjas of Love, that's all I'll say. They're not exactly giving me a lot of space. And Phoenix and his pets aren't really helping…" he finished with a grumble.

That guy meant well but he really didn't know when to stop. Just because he still hadn't pranked them with X-ray vision so they could see through each other's clothes didn't mean his teasing was fine.

Ozpin nodded, but then smiled that smile of his which made people want to cave his face in. "You aren't wrong, but maybe you're overthinking all of this."

"Huh?" was his very intelligent response.

"Maybe it is because I've lived for _far_ longer than any of you, but it appears that you're considering a few kisses and wandering hands as a sign of eternal commitment," Ozpin continued, ignoring Jaune's hard blush. "The game 'seven minutes in heaven', I believe it called, is extremely common at parties, even when the two victims don't really know each other. You are young, and are reading too much into this. And even then, even if you do get together with them but then it doesn't work out, you'll still be friends."

"But it'll be _really_ awkward…" Jaune protested. And that was without mentioning the heartbreak, of course.

"Mr Arc… Jaune, there's a saying. True friendship is the purest form of love. You know why?" Jaune shrugged. "Because true friendship has no bounds. Romantic love can be fragile, and you might need to hide your flaws from your significant other. Familial love can be taxing as your relatives can have expectations of you. A true friend does not judge you in any way. Of course, it's far from easy to tell a true friend from a normal friend, but why give up before you've even tried?" Ozpin smiled fatherly at him. "Jaune, maybe you don't have the time nor the chance to think about whether you like those girls or not. What does matter, is that they are friends first and lovers second. You don't have to put on an act around them just to please them."

He summoned a cup of coffee, startling Jaune, and took a sip. "Will they be hurt if you were to put some distance between you and them? Undoubtedly, but they'd understand. They might even understand it's their doing to begin with. But they would be even more hurt if you were to enter a relationship under pressure from their advances, only to call it off because it's either unwanted, unrequited or too straining. You are saving them a possible heartbreak later by giving them a heartache now. Besides, take this seriously but please do not be offended, you are teenagers. Highly emotional, hormonal teenagers stuck in a room with only each other. You might want to wait until we are sent home before you take any final decision."

Ozpin drank more coffee before he closed in for the kill. "The way I see it, Jaune, you have two choices. One, you can play along and be moderately intimate with them and then _possibly_ hurt them by not feeling the same, or you can _actually_ stop their advances and wait until you've figured your confused feelings out."

Jaune nodded and then took a deep breath. "Thank you, Professor. That… was actually more useful than Phoenix's advice."

The Headmaster smiled. "Jaune, while I am flattered, I believe Phoenix gave you the best advice. Only, even the best advice can't be used if you are not aware of how you can use it."

Jaune rolled his eyes. Of course Ozpin would go back to being all vague and mysterious the moment he'd cleared his thoughts a little. "I'll think about what you said, I'll have the answer before the viewing starts."

"Good," nodded the man. "Now, shall we go back?"

"Of course."

The two of them were met with questioning glances from the others as they returned, but no one asked since it had clearly been a private conversation.

In a way, Jaune would've felt better had they asked what it had been about. At least it would've given him a way to start the conversation. Instead, he remained standing for a whole minute, wings twitching erratically because of his tense nerves and thoughtful mood, before someone helped the poor soul out.

"Jaune?" asked Pyrrha. "Are you okay?"

"O-Oh, yeah I'm… I'm fine, thanks," he replied nervously, a bit startled. "It's just… that… I decided I can't in a relationship right now."

Of _course_ he had to go at it in the worst possible way. He actually heard Ozpin's loud facepalm. He could see the hurt in Ruby's, Yang's and Blake's eyes, though thankfully it didn't look _heartbreak_ outright, the shock in everyone else's and the fury in Qrow's. The former and the latter were what pushed him to hurry up with his next words. "No, wait, not like that! I just… ugh, I'm not good at this… It's just… I need time to think."

Blake relaxed slightly at that. "You already said that, Jaune, and we agree-"

"You agreed but you haven't been _acting_ like you agreed, that's the point!" Jaune ran a hand through his hair in nervousness. "Look, you all said you'd give me time to think, but you haven't been giving me a _chance_ to think. It's not that I don't like the affection but that's not giving me time to think. For the time being, until I can figure all this out, can we act like friends? Just friends? I'm not friendzoning any of you, it's just… I don't want to rush into this and have you all regret it later."

"I mean, I'm Jaune Arc – I'm not a dating expert. I need time. A lot more time than the small breaks between viewings give us, and I can't exactly focus on watching and thinking about something _this_ important at the same time," he said. "Had it been just one of you, maybe I would've had the answer ready. But three? Three? Girls, look at it from my point of view – how would you feel if three different guys you _might_ like confessed? Would you not ask for some space?"

The shock and hurt wore off, even if Qrow still looked very unhappy about it. "Fearless Leader is right…" Nora supported him after a few seconds. "It's not an easy decision for him… and you being so affectionate isn't really helping."

Yang shook her head. "No, I _know_ he's right. We were being selfish because we thought that just because he didn't _initiate_ anything, we were giving him space. We were no better than mild yanderes not taking no for an answer."

Jaune sweat-dropped at that. It wasn't a completely wrong answer, but it wasn't like he wanted to compare his friends to yanderes. "Let's not get to insults," he tried to play mediator between Yang, who was insulting herself, and Nora, who was agreeing with her. "Just give me some time, and once I have the answer I'll tell you as soon as possible."

"Which means don't take too long to confess, you two," Qrow called out at Weiss and Pyrrha, both of whom just looked away with a sigh. It wasn't like he was completely wrong, but both had their reasons for hesitating. Weiss, both because she'd rejected Jaune before, and because the heiress of the SDC in a harem would have… well, a less than stellar effect on her goal of redeeming the SDC. And Pyrrha, both because of her shyness, and because the others were already pressuring Jaune enough without her adding to the pile of girls confessing their feelings for him.

From her corner, Cinder rolled their eyes. _That_ was what the fluff that monkey was so fond of caused. She didn't even need to do anything to prove him wrong.

Jaune patted Sable on her head, to which she replied with a look that really seemed to scream _'Humans are weird, all of them. I'll never understand you.'_

She wasn't exactly wrong on the humans being weird part. It's part of their charm.

 _Finally_ , the viewing could begin.

 **It's been a few days since Jaune had his disagreement with RWBY but things were still strained between him and RWY. There was no hostility between them but a lot of awkwardness. Like neither party knew what to say or do around the other. Blake was trying to be the go between but she was getting sick of it. The only good thing that was coming from this, was that the two now had excuses to sneak off together. Both enjoying their time alone immensely but were still anxious for Jaune to talk to the other four girls. Jaune admitted to Blake that he realized his feelings for Ruby and Weiss recently, so they could figure out what to do next.**

With absolutely no offence to the Swordsman, Jaune was seething with envy. He could sort out his feelings for _five_ different girls so easily! It wasn't fair! He wanted so much time to think too!

Sable snorted, as if reading his mind. Which wasn't impossible given whose pet she was.

 **Which brings us to why Jaune was standing in front of RWBY's door, extremely worried. Blake had pretty much told him that they really couldn't go on the mission if everyone refused to talk to each other and that he would have to talk to them. Jaune swallowed nervously and raised his hand to knock on the door but stopped before he lowered it again. He sighed, he pretty much had been doing this on repeat for about ten minutes now.**

 **"You need to talk to them, Jaune." Came Blake's voice from behind him. This would usually cause him to jump but he was too nervous to care about his girlfriend popping out of thin air, again.**

"Again?" Ironwood raised an eyebrow. His metal one.

"Blake has a habit of not announcing her arrival, and since she can be really quiet, sometimes she scares the crap out of someone unlucky enough to turn around at the wrong moment," Yang explained with a laugh. "Not me though. I'd never be afraid of my own partner."

Everyone looked at Blake, excepting her to deny, but she just shrugged. "It's true. To this day, I still haven't managed to scare her, though I haven't been really _trying_."

 **"I know. I don't even know what to say though. I mean, I have a good idea on what the problem is but still."**

 **He felt Blake hug him from behind, "You know they don't hold a grudge against you. Just go in there and talk like you usually would. Nothing's changed, Jaune."**

"That's the worst advice you could ever give me, Blake," Jaune sighed. He knew he was awful with words. Quick learner, good dancer, good strategist? He was all of those. Smooth talker? Ha. When Hell froze over.

"That's not true. You might not be good at putting it into words, but it's what you mean what matters." Surprisingly, it was Weiss the one who spoke. After all, he'd always been pretty clear in his pursuing of her, even though the courtship itself was nothing short of awful.

"Exactly. Well-meaning, not smooth talker."

 **He smiled and took one of her hands before kissing the back of it. "Thank you, Kitten."**

 **She kissed his cheek before leading him into the room. The other members looked up from their activities: Weiss was studying, Yang was reading a magazine and Ruby was working on Crescent Rose. The four just looked at each other for a while in silence. Until Blake elbowed him and gave him a look. He sighed and started to scratch the back of his head, "Ruby, Weiss, Yang, I want to apologize for losing my temper with all of you. You didn't need me to do that but I was just concerned for you is all."**

"I would've probably pulled a Pyrrha and started apologizing."

"Excuse me?"

"See?" That got a few chuckles. "Sorry Pyrrha, it's just… well, you _do_ tend to apologize even when you don't need to, and to do it repeatedly."

The redhead sighed as she thought about it. She was polite, but she'd never noticed she was actually repeating herself.

"It's not too much, don't worry, we noticed but only because we are your friends," Nora reassured her, earning a small smile from her sister-in-team.

 **They were quiet for a while until Ruby got off her bed and stood in front of Jaune with her usual smile, "It's alright, Jaune. You gave us a reality check that we all needed."**

 **"Yeah, we were a little too anxious to do something crazy. Thanks for the save, Hero." Yang said from her bunk.**

 **He then turned to Weiss, who had a small smile, "This isn't the first time you needed to set me straight. It's okay, Jaune."**

Everyone blinked once, then again.

"Is the proudest and most arrogant team in Beacon… easily accepting critique?" Goodwitch wondered out loud, shocked.

"Hey!"

"It seems so, Glynda. Honestly, hadn't I seen this with my very eyes, I wouldn't have believed it," Ozpin nodded.

"Hey!"

"Getting the kiddo, the firecracker and the Ice Queen Jr to accept being told off?" Qrow raised his flask in a toast. "Long may you live. You'll go very far in life, kiddo."

"Uncle Qrow!"

"As much as I loathe to agree with that drunk, he's right. I thought it'd be impossible to make Weiss change her mind," Winter continued as well.

"Come on!"

"It's not like they changed their minds," Jaune sighed, shaking his head and dodging a punch from Yang. "It's just that they accepted the critique, and now they're gonna go on that mission nonetheless, but with that in mind."

Matching groans from all the adults were met with furious humiliation from Team RWBY. "We're not that bad!" protested their leader.

"Well, Nep and I only got into _one_ adventure with you and I can already say: yes, yes you are," Sun retorted, unamused.

"We are _not_ arrogant," Blake protested.

"You were trying to take down a terrorist organization that the _Kingdoms_ could not eradicate, single-handedly," Cinder stated with a smirk. "Since you are thinking this through, this makes you arrogant instead of crazy. You are overestimating yourselves… a _lot_."

 **Jaune smiled slightly, "Thanks guys. I just couldn't imagine what I'd do if I lost any of you."**

 **Ruby took his hand, "Same goes for us. Besides, you did bring up a good point. Doing this may make us get blood on our hands." She looked down sadly. "That wasn't something any of us thought of until you said that and I don't think any of us would've been even slightly ready for that."**

 **Jaune gently squeezed her hand, "I know and I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I just didn't want it sneaking up on you. That would make things harder." He looked away slightly.**

"It's not like they haven't killed before," snorted Cinder. "The goons you fought were far from skilled. You may not have directly killed them, but some of them died to their injuries later, I'm pretty sure of that. You brought Torchwick to the highway instead of fighting him in that warehouse just to have an open battlefield, and that killed dozens of people who were on that highway. You are all murderers already."

"They may have caused deaths but doing it first-hand is usually what changes it," Ironwood came to their defence, shocking everyone since he'd been one of the ones who lectured them about it.

Cinder shrugged. "Still death it is."

 **"You sound like you're talking from experience." Weiss stated. "But you told us when you killed for the first time. So what are you referring to?"**

 **Jaune sighed and steeled his nerves before he turned back to them. "The captain of the guard I killed wasn't the first person I killed. He was my second." After he said that, the four girls were shocked.**

 **"What happened?" Ruby asked before she quickly put her hand over her mouth.**

 **"It's fine, Rosebud. I came to terms with it a long time ago. I'll tell you all but you all have to promise me you won't tell anyone on my team. Especially, Nora."**

Everyone looked at Nora, who shrugged. "What? Different universe and all that ambaradan."

"Amba-what?" Jaune repeated.

"Ambaradan. It means Ambitiously and Radically Alternative Universe. They used the N instead of the U because 'ambaradau' didn't have a nice ring to it." Everyone just sighed and shook their heads. Nora was always Nora in whatever universe she was.

 **The girls looked at each other before they nodded. Jaune grabbed a chair and sat it down between the two bunks at the end of the beds. He turned it around so that he was leaning his arms on the backrest. Ruby and Weiss sat on the latter's bed while Yang and Blake did the same on Blake's. Jaune took a deep breath and started. "I told you all about my second mother. But what most don't know is that she was once a member of the White Fang, before they turned for the worse, of course. She helped in every way she could but when she took me in, she had to lessen her time with the Fang. Until she took in Ren and Nora a year later and then she had to leave the group to focus on raising and training us. The Fang still contacted her if they desperately needed her help for one thing or another. She'd help if she could."**

Ironwood summoned a hat, threw it on the ground and began to stomp on it. "How is it that the White Fang has so many skilled Hunters in it and we don't even have a clue!?" he shouted, enraged.

His actions made Ruby, Blake, Yang, Qrow and Nora crack a laugh. It was fun to see the usually composed General act out so much. Secretly, Glynda shared their amusement.

"Calm down, James. This is an alternative universe. Maybe the Atlas Military will have some competent Hunters too?" Ozpin offered, trying not to grin at his friend's distress.

Ironwood grumbled, threw the beaten hat into the crater and summoned a cup of corrected coffee.

 **He sighed. "But that changed five years ago. When the new leader stepped up, the Fang tried to 'recruit' her again. She denied every time but each denial made them more aggressive and dangerous. It finally came to a head about four years ago. We were all home, just enjoying our time together. She heard something and grabbed her weapons. She told us to stay in the house and not come outside. Of course, being us, we didn't listen. We looked out the window with the drapes still drawn. We saw her standing across from about half a dozen White Fang. They weren't wearing masks but I don't know whether that was before they started to do so or some other reason. We couldn't hear what they were saying but we had to guess they were trying to get her to join up again. Eventually, they all pulled their weapons and they started fighting. Gin had the advantage and probably would've been fine." Jaune took a second to collect himself.**

 **"What happened? Ruby asked again.**

 **Jaune took a deep breath. "Nora. Gin got pushed into a corner after taking down two of the six. These guys must've been some of their best. They pushed her and Nora couldn't stand to see her new mother to get hurt." Jaune looked up to the ceiling. "She grabbed her practice hammer and ran out the door to help. Ren and I grabbed our weapons and followed her." He looked back to the girls. "When we got out there, Nora had already knocked out one of the weakened White Fang. Gin panicked at the thought of Nora getting hurt and she took out two more but it was already too late. The leader of the little group had disarmed Nora and was holding her by her throat. She was struggling to breathe and Ren lost it and ran forward to try and save her. He had his father's dagger ready to stab into him but the Faunus dodged his strike and punched him to the ground before he stepped on his chest, enough to hurt him but not kill. He pulled out a gun and aimed it at Nora who was on the brink of passing out from lack of air. He gave Gin and option, join them or watch the two of them die."**

"I wonder if that's Taurus," Jaune growled a little bit. It surely sounded like him.

"Probably not. The Swordsman is telling them of his first kill, which was probably that man," shrugged Weiss. "Blake wouldn't have left the White Fang had Taurus been killed, either in revenge or because the Fang wouldn't have turned violent. So I'm guessing that's not Taurus."

"Pity…"

 **Jaune stopped and placed his hand over his eyes. Even though he made peace with this, reliving it was painful. He felt someone lay a hand on his shoulder and he took his hand away. He saw Blake giving him a concerned look. Jaune gave her a small smile and nod. The smile fell and he continued. "I was standing seven feet away from him with my practice sword drawn and a fire dust crystal in my other hand. I froze. Thinking of losing Ren and Nora, who I was already starting to see as siblings, was too much for me. The fear warped to anger. Rage. I was never so mad in all my life and I snapped. On reflex I absorbed all the energy from the dust crystal and my aura erupted into flames. The flames than started to glow crimson along with my right eye." He brought up his hand and placed it over his eye, remembering the sensation. "That was the first time I pushed my Semblance into 'Stage Two'."**

Neptune flipped. He began to laugh maniacally. "Stage Two! Now there's a Stage Two! Of course! It makes so much sense!" he continued to laugh like a psychopath as he summoned a gigantic blackboard from nothing and started drawing mathematical functions and formulas. "Of course! Because by considering his power level _pl_ in correlation to his level of bullshit _lbs_ , to the power of Phoenix's ego _Pe_ , divided by the constant of realism _r_ , to which we then have to add the variable _bpl_ of the bullshitting power levels, and then subtract the variable of gravity over stupidity _gs_ , and consider…"

He rambled on and on while the others watched him in worry and slight fear. The extension of the Swordsman's Semblance had seemingly broken the intellectual, who had all along been trying to find any correlation between its power and logic, since he considered it to be far too powerful to be real and not favouritism from the Gods.

Though he had a reason to flip, exaggerated reaction aside. The Swordsman's Semblance was both broken and overkill. Broken as in overpowered, and overkill as in unnecessarily strong and complicated. True, psychological effects were still beyond his grasp, or specific Semblances like Time Stop or Cinder's Matter Manipulation could do things he could not, but in the realms of Elemental power, he was simply unmatched.

 **"Stage Two?" Weiss asked. After all the times she helped Jaune with his Semblance, she never heard him mention this.**

 **"Right, never talked about that. Simply put, Stage One is where I absorb the element and allows me to manipulate it. Plus, the element enhances my aura giving my body physical boosts. Stage Two is where I use my aura to increase the power of the element and increase my control over the element. It's what I used at the docks and against that tool Kuro. Although if I'm low on aura or use it for an extended period of time, I'll pass out."**

 **"Sounds risky." Blake said sounding concerned.**

"So we have to add the constant _s_ of his stamina or the constant of his endurance _e_ , depending on which sounds better in the equation!" Neptune laughed as he scribbled some more.

"I think he might get along fine with Oobleck when he's in the middle of a great discovery," noted Ozpin, unconcerned. After all, Neptune was Haven's problems, not his.

 **Jaune shrugged, "I don't use it often so no harm. Anyways, when I did that, I charged towards him. He quickly dropped Nora and stepped off of Ren while shifting his gun into a sword. We clashed and I pushed him back. He was still in shock and decided to try to hold me off but that was a mistake. The enhanced strength I had combined with the intense flames I was creating broke his sword in half." Jaune looked away, "My momentum carried and I sliced through his throat. I got covered in his blood and he fell to the ground shortly after. And I passed out from the strain of my Semblance."**

 **He looked back to see RWBY just staring at him. "I woke up not long afterwards but remembered every detail. I locked myself in my room for days. All I could remember was that Faunus' dead eyes just staring at me and his blood that covered me. I didn't want to see anyone. I just felt like a monster. Eventually, Gin had enough and came into my room. She sat me down and pulled me into a hug. She then told me that she didn't know if what I did was the right thing to do. But too many good things came from it to be the wrong thing. She explained that if I didn't do that then Nora could've died and I should focus on that. Even though I took a life, I saved the life of someone dear to me." He looked at them with a sad smile. "So, I really don't regret it."**

"Well, aside from breaking Nep, that was enlightening," said Sun. "We now know why he's so good at fighting people. He doesn't hesitate."

"Though killing someone isn't as hard as he makes it sound, to do so at that age must've been quite a feat," noted Cinder, earning herself the stares of the rest of the audience. "What? You can't deny that a child being steady enough in his resolve to take a life is almost unheard of."

"As much as I hate to say this, it's true, children rarely take lives for a reason. If they are conditioned since birth, it's easy for them…" Qrow glared, remembering Raven's carelessness in killing or torturing people for her own gain. "But otherwise, it's pretty hard for someone grown up in a nice environment to actually kill someone. Usually they hold back."

"Though it's common for the first kill to be unintentional," Winter finished.

 **Everyone was quiet for a bit and Yang broke that silence, "So, why don't you want Nora to know?"**

 **"Nora was barely conscious when I killed him. We believe she may have repressed those memories and we don't wanna accidentally make her remember them." Jaune ran his hand through his hair. "She has enough trauma already, I don't wanna add more. Besides, she might not see me as her 'Fearless Leader' if she found out the truth."**

 **"That's stupid." They all heard the voice and Jaune's eyes went wide. He jumped up and turned to see Nora standing in the doorway with Ren and Pyrrha. He forgot to close the door.**

"Hey, it's not like I haven't seen my fair share of death," Nora grumbled, a bit unhappy at being babied like that. "Ren and I are _orphans_. That rarely comes with a childhood away from death."

She then winced at people's winces. "I mean, it just happened. I just don't know why he tried to keep it from me when I obviously had seen death before."

Ren nodded slightly, he too was confused. They had both been there, hiding as people died, when Kuroyuri fell.

 **"Nora, um, how much did you hear?" he asked nervously.**

 **"All of it." She said with a very serious look on her face. Jaune looked away in shame and to try to think of what to say. Then he felt Nora wrap him in a gently hug. He looked at her in shock. "I never forgot, Jaune. I just didn't want to hurt you more. You hated yourself so much because of me. Because of what you did. I was so afraid that you'd change because of that and that you wouldn't be the Jaune I love." She started shaking slightly. Jaune wrapped her in a hug and she looked up at him with a watery smile and tears running down her face. "I'm so glad you didn't change. I don't know what I'd do without my Big Brother and Fearless Leader."**

"I got him later!"

"Nora…"

"Yes, Fearless Leader?"

Jaune sighed. "Nothing. I was being silly. Of course you got me later…"

 **Jaune kissed her forehead and pulled her close. "You'll never have to find out. I'll always be here for you, Little Sister." With that, she turned her gentle hug into her patented bear hug. RWBY and the PR of JNPR just watched with smiles. After that, the eight spent time together playing games and enjoying their time before they had to get a start on their homework. Jaune got a message from Blake just before bed telling him that their mission would start after class on Friday. Jaune smiled and went to sleep. Both him and Nora were relieved that the secret they had was now out in the open. But Jaune still hoped that he could protect what was left of his friends' innocence for just a bit longer. The world was never the same without it.**

"That was mild," noted Sun, munching on some popcorns. "I mean, nothing really happened. Sure, sorry for the guy for killing and all, but nothing happened other than that, and the apologies from everyone to everyone."

"…and then we have to put the variable of air's weight _aw_ under cube root before we multiply it by the constant of Remnant's pollution level _Rpl_ , before we move onto subtracting from it the constant of Remnant's Indirect Pull on its surroundings planets, _RIP_ , until we have a number belonging to C that is within the constant _r_ of realism and the variable _l_ of logic…"

"Well, almost nothing really happened," Sun quickly amended his own statement. "How long do you think it'll take before Phoenix comes here to take responsibility?"

"Technically, it's not really Phoenix's fault," Ruby piped up.

"Yeah, but I don't feel like taking responsibility even if I'm the team leader. An insane Neptune is not something I'm looking forward to facing." Everyone had to agree there. "So… anyone's got Phoenix's number?"

 ** _Yes, I know Neptune's reaction is exaggerated, but honestly, after him commenting on the Swordsman's Semblance all along, it was too good to pass up._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	38. Chapter 37

**_Here I am! You know what, gotta stop these... No AN at the end it is..._**

Neptune had finally quieted down, at least for the time being. He was apparently satisfied with the extra-extra-extra-long eighth-grade system of inequalities, not that anyone there could really figure out what that thing meant.

Interestingly enough, he actually got the correct result, even though his methods were less than exact. However, no one really knew what those letters meant.

Thankfully, red fire erupted in the middle of the rocky balcony they were currently on before anyone had to put down the insane scientist. Sun sighed in relief at seeing Phoenix appear through the flames and stepped into the open. "Hello everyone. How is it going?"

"Phoenix! I did it!" Neptune screamed triumphantly, pointing at his blackboard, mad glint in his eyes. "I figured it out! I figured it out!"

Phoenix glanced at the blackboard, gave up in trying to understand what it was, and shrugged. "Yeah, for now. Just you wait until you find out more…"

Neptune's face fell into despair. "There's more?"

The Writer shrugged again. "Yes. But don't worry, I won't force you to see it. Trying to bring logic into things like Aura, Semblance and webseries usually leads to frustration or, in extreme cases, reactions like yours. Better be prepared." He waved his hand and orange flames engulfed the blue-haired boy. "Though congrats, I honestly wouldn't have known where to start, much less actually write a complete equation for it. Your reward is going back to Remnant."

"Wha-" Before he could even finish his words, Neptune disappeared, and the flames died down soon after.

"Oh thank the Gods," Sun breathed out in relief. "I was getting scared."

"Oh, I haven't healed him, I just sent him back, he's still like that," Phoenix replied off-handedly, earning a cry of outrage from Neptune's leader. "Moving on, is there anything you guys want to ask me?"

"Yes, why did you do that?!" Sun exclaimed, depressed at the thought of having to deal with Neptune once he got back.

"Because I said that if people behaved I wouldn't wipe their memories… I said that, right? Oh well, I'm saying it now. While Neptune and I had out disagreements, he did not misbehave enough to be forced to forget this. As such, cancelling the effects but not the cause would only result in a _worse_ breakdown later on," Phoenix explained calmly. People usually didn't think too far ahead, but as a Writer, it was kind of his job. Not that he did that _all the time_ , but still he liked to think he had a bit of a better insight than most of those students.

"On a completely different topic, did someone ask me to give the lovebirds here X-Ray vision?" he asked with a shit-eating grin.

"NO!" everyone shouted. Even Ozpin let down his usually calm facade to give him a piece of his mind.

Phoenix laughed. "Oh, my bad, must've been from some other alternative universe. I'm sorry." He didn't look sorry at all. "So? No questions? Nothing I have to explain to you?"

"Actually, I do," Ironwood spoke up. "Not to sound offensive, or to end up like Mr Vasilias, but I too have questions regarding Mr Arc's Semblance. Or at least the Swordsman's Semblance. Despite Semblances varying in power from individual to individual, they still always fall within a certain range. Teleport Semblances capable of moving several unwilling targets for hundreds of metres are unheard of. As are Healing Semblances that can cure deadly illnesses in their terminal stages. I can understand that such a complex Semblance is both hard to master and with high criteria to be met before use, but it's sheer potential is beyond anything I've ever seen."

Phoenix thought about it for a few seconds before nodding. "Since you've been more polite and overall you make a good point, I'll try to answer you the best I can. Now, the Swordsman's Semblance, at the beginning, was not this."

"What?" Jaune spoke up. "That's impossible. Semblances can't just change."

"Let me explain. At first, he could only use his Semblance to consume Dust at a much slower pace. For example, if a normal Fire crystal depleted after two uses, he could make it last for four by feeding his Aura into it. Basically, he turned his Aura into Dust Energy by using Dust as a catalyst and his Aura as fuel. This caused him to quickly tire out. Thus far, it doesn't sound so overkill, doesn't it?" Phoenix began what would be a long explanation.

"It is within the standards, yes. Maybe even on the lower half, since it needs a catalyst for it," Ironwood nodded. Dust was easy to find and purchase, so such a Semblance would be useful, but less than the more flashy, combat-oriented or simply more powerful ones Hunters used.

"Exactly. Now, just like how muscles grow stronger by use, Semblances do the same. However, it all depends on how you use them. Training your body for strength or for speed require two different workout regimes – you can choose one or both. Likewise, training one's Semblance can go different ways. He could've trained himself to use less Aura, or to create a stronger effect, or to tire himself out less. Which he did, all of those."

"But what about absorbing Dust?" Ruby spoke up.

Phoenix smiled. "I was getting to that. Now, one day he got curious – the Dust Energy he produced was still, deep down, his Aura, channelled through Dust. So he tried to re-absorb it into himself. At first, it didn't go so well… not well at all. His body identified it as a foreign substance, neither Aura nor Dust, and reacted pretty badly. Just like you can grow immune to poison by ingesting small quantities of it and increasing it over time as your resistance grows, he did the same, slowly getting his body acquainted with his new Aura. He had to do so for every type of Aura, which is the reason why he gets his Elemental Backlash, which is more extreme the less common the Dust he's using is."

"But what about merging Dust?" Weiss spoke up. "Aura normally can't do that."

"No, it can't, but please let me finish." Phoenix kept his cool. It was easy to forget that they hadn't watched that world from start to finish. "Now, once he got used to that Aura inside him, he just thought about merging it back with his natural Aura. Like, one single pool of Aura instead of a natural one and a Dust one, both inside his body. It worked… after a lot of trying and soaking himself in water or burning his clothes off… but the Dust Aura lost power the more it was mixed with Normal Aura. So he just chose to keep the two separated since they didn't do any damage… until he started to use two different Dust types and had the bright idea to fuse them together."

The Writer chuckled. "That's how the legend of the mythic Jaune of Ice was born. He encased himself in ice. Took Gin two hours to free him, thankfully they managed to free his head quickly enough. And yes, that's how he started using his Advance Elements, like Ice. So he's not actually merging Dust, he's merging Aura, his own Aura. Since you all have only Natural Aura, you can't understand, but it's possible." He smirked. "Now, onto 'Stage Two', this is pretty basic to explain. You do know how Aura improves your physical capabilities, right? Lets you move faster, hit stronger, tank more strikes, and the more Aura you push into your body, the more it will help you. Well, this is more or less the same. Only, instead of imbuing his body with concentrated Aura to increment his abilities, like for a sprint, or a heavy hit, or a quick defence, he concentrates his Dust Aura and then uses it. It's like using a distilled product, which is stronger than a non-distilled one."

Everyone nodded. That made sense. "But, just how much has he trained to do that?" Nora spoke up. "Pyrrha here trained her whole life yet she isn't half of the Swordsman."

"Ah, well, without any offence whatsoever, Pyrrha, but you've been trained to be a champion only _after_ you unlocked your Semblance. Before, you trained hard, but not _that_ hard. So while you are indeed stronger than most, you effectively received less training than then Swordsman. Also we must take into consideration another thing – for the first part of your training, _before_ you could afford skilled private tutors, you were being taught in a class. At Sanctum, with more than twenty other students." Phoenix gave Pyrrha an apologetic look. He wasn't trying to offend her or undermine her achievements, he was just stating a fact. "Jaune was taught alone, or alongside Ren and Nora at the most, who didn't train as often as he did because they didn't see any point in overdoing it. So where Jaune always received training specifically tailored for him, Pyrrha only did so in the last three to four years, since she won her first Mistral Regional Tournament. Again, no offence meant. So it's logical for the Swordsman to have ended up being stronger – even though Pyrrha actually has more talent than him. He gained that combat skill by working hard, she took to it like a fish to water. In return he's better with his Semblance. More natural, so to speak. Does this answer your question?"

"It does, thank you," Ironwood nodded, immediately thinking of upping his soldiers' training to improve their Semblances as well. Maybe they would never get even close to the Swordsman's level, but it would still be an interesting and useful experiment.

"Perfect!" Phoenix clapped his hands and sat down on one of the pillows strewn across the ground. "I'm gonna watch this with you, mostly because I need to meet with Khor about something later. Anyway, shall we start?"

"Sure."

 **The rest of the week flew by for Jaune and RWBY. They were sitting in their last class, which was Grimm Studies, and were listening to Port going on with another of his stories. Time seemed to be going in slow motion and Jaune was losing his mind. His nerves were already on edge and this boredom was not helping him in the slightest. Luckily, the bell sounded and the class was dismissed. RWBY made their way to their dorm while Jaune went with his team to the library. He had already told them that he was going to spend a night in town by himself to blow off some steam. They didn't ask questions, mostly because by now they all knew if Jaune didn't want to talk about something, he wouldn't. They told him to have a good time before he left them to their fun at the library. Jaune stopped by the locker rooms to grab his swords, armor and Kuroibarra.**

 **He made his way to the dorms and knocked on RWBY's door and soon Ruby opened it. Jaune just stared at the girls. They were all wearing new outfits and they looked gorgeous in his opinion. Eventually Ruby waved her hand in front of his face and he snapped out of it. "You okay, Jaune?" She asked him.**

Everyone looked at Jaune, who stared right back at them. "No idea why he froze like that. Besides, a woman's beauty isn't based on her clothes."

"Fair point," everyone nodded, accepting the answer.

Phoenix chuckled. Jaune must've been growing desensitised to being embarrassed due to constant exposure to it. Just a dozen viewings ago, he would've at the very least blushed. Or said something suave while not meaning to be suave. Or embarrass himself. Or all of the above.

 **"Yeah. Sorry about that." He said slightly embarrassed.**

 **Yang gave him a teasing smile before she spoke, "See something you like, Hero?"**

 **Jaune blushed slightly, "Uh, yeah. Sorry but I'm not used to seeing you girls in anything besides your battle attire and uniforms. You all look great by the way." He smiled.**

"Hey, we do have casual clothes!" Yang protested, then wilted when everyone stared flatly at her.

"Even your casual clothes are just slightly modified versions of your normal combat outfits," Jaune replied. "Not that I'm the one to talk, my casual outfit is literally the same clothes, but without armour…"

"Hunters do prefer to stay in their combat attires as they are always ready to fight in case of emergencies," Goodwitch commented, defending her students. "However, you are students. You are allowed a bit of diversity in your wardrobe."

 **The girls all blushed at that and Blake had to resist from kissing him in front of her team. "Thank you, Jaune. That means a lot." She said when she got her senses back.**

This time the stares went to Blake, who shrugged.

"Why is it so easy to fluster Blake in that world?" Sun complained to himself.

Cinder patted his shoulder. "There there. This is what happens when you rely on your 'fluff'."

"…you're evil."

"I know."

Phoenix shook his head. What the hell was going on with Cinder and Sun?

 **"Well, since you all are dressing for the occasion, I might as well too." He smirked and walked to his dorm. "Give me five minutes." He said as he entered his dorm. He placed his swords on his desk and his armor on his bed he went to his closet to grab the clothes he got from Velvet and Coco. He put his black jeans on and attached his greaves to them before he put his belt on that he got from Weiss. He attached Kuroibarra to the back, in between his fire and wind clips, along with his scroll, between his fire and water clips. He put on the skin tight long sleeve black shirt that extended up his neck. He then wore his vambracers, rerebrace and chest plate over his shirt before he grabbed the silver hoodie to put over it all. He had it zipped only half way up so you could see the white armor on his chest along with the black shirt. He finally attached his swords to his back and made sure his gloves were on comfortably before he made his way back over to RWBY's. He knocked and Ruby opened it again and the four girls just stared at him.**

 **Jaune smirked at them, "See something you like?" He said, imitating Yang.**

"Don't even look at me, because I have no idea why he would do such a thing," Jaune spoke up before anyone could turn to him. Phoenix hid a chuckle at the pre-emptive security measure. "I'd never say something like that."

 **The girls shook themselves from their stupors and blushed. Jaune chuckled at them before Ruby clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention. "Right! Everyone remember their roles?"**

 **Weiss started, "You and I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem."**

 **Blake spoke next, "The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning."**

 **Yang followed up, "I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard."**

"Ms Xiao Long, are you saying you are in contact with one of Vale's best info brokers, and you have told exactly _no one_?!" Ironwood growled before turning to Ozpin and hissing, " _These_ are your warriors, Ozpin? Children with no respect for authority, and whose desire to do good leads them to breaking the law over and over just because they feel like they're above the law?!"

"James-"

"Don't you 'James' me, Ozpin! Out of all your students, who are your best? A team whose leader is a faker, and a team who willingly breaks oh-so-many laws just because they think they're the smartest on Remnant and thus whatever they do will be the right thing." Ironwood was close to pulling his hair out. "Phoenix, help me out on this – you're the only one who can convince him!"

Phoenix sighed at being called in like that. "Unfortunately, I must agree with Ironwood. Team RWBY has shown several times that they do not think their plans through, do not care for authority or laws, and try to do good even when it means committing crimes, minor as they are."

"However."

That froze Ironwood's smile and RWBY's downcast expression.

"It is also true that this is also their strength. I normally don't condone it, but if the Hunters and the authority show to be so incompetent students can do better, then I see why they did it. They did more at fighting Torchwick and the White Fang than anyone else. As I said, I do not condone what they did, but would it be better to leave idiots in charge? Because as far as I see, authority has no idea how to handle things. Torchwick and the White Fang could've easily been stopped had the authority wanted to do so. All that was needed was some Faunus Hunters to infiltrate the Fang. But instead, no one did anything. Even after Team RWBY took action, they were the only ones." He snorted. "Not to mention that authority is also very slow to take action when needed. When Team RWBY crashed the train from Mt Glenn, it took less time for Team JNPR, who were at Beacon, to arrive, rather than the almighty Atlasian military with the top-of-the-line robots and warships. So in the end, I think it's whether the laws mean more than human lives. As long as the authority doesn't its job, I see no reason to respect it when it comes to saving lives."

Ironwood was left speechless, as were the students.

Phoenix suddenly frowned, though. "However… this does not make your plans any less risky and ill-thought-out. Some of them worked out for sheer luck. You were lucky that at the docks you had an overpowered Huntress to help you, and you were lucky Torchwick was in a hurry at Mt Glenn… also, without Dr Oobleck, those Paladins would've _crushed_ you. You really need to work on your planning. You may be a good tactician, Ruby, but if you can't form a decent plan beforehand, then one day you will get in a situation you won't be able to get out of."

And on that final note, the viewing continued.

 **"And I will be tagging along with Yang to make sure she doesn't get arrested or cause too much damage to the city. So, I'm babysitting." He said with a smile and Yang punched him on his arm and pouted. Everyone laughed at that.**

 **"Great!" Ruby said with enthusiasm. "We'll meet up tonight near Yang and Jaune to go over what we found. Let's do this!"**

 **"Yeah!" they all heard a voice coming from the window and on reflex Jaune grabbed Kuroibarra and threw it at the voice. Luckily for the person, Jaune was out of practice and it got lodged into the windowsill. They all looked to see Sun hanging upside down by his tail outside the window looking shocked.**

"Nice reaction time."

"You do know you're telling that to the wrong version of me, right?"

"Are we just gonna ignore the guy was spying on an all-girl dorm room?" Qrow growled. If there was one thing he hated, it was perverts. And boys around his little girls. And being sober. And Grimm. And Salem. And Winter. Scratch that and put Winter in first place.

"I was just passing by and noted they were talking about Torchwick," Sun explained with a shrug. "No need to get angry about it."

Team RWBY all shot him glares, which went ignored.

 **"Damn it, Sun." Jaune said as he walked over to the window and pulled out his dagger. "You're so lucky I'm rusty." he said as he put his dagger away.**

"Yeah, right," Sun chuckled before freaking out as a knife landed not two inches from his leg. "What the hell?!"

To everyone surprise, it had been not Jaune, but…

"Not everyone is 'rusty'," Ren said, arm still outstretched. He didn't like to act out like that, but Sun needed to understand that hanging around some girls' window 'just because' was _not_ something he should ever do again.

Aaaaand now Sun is scared of Ren.

 **"Sorry, jeez!" he said as he flipped into the room. "Didn't think you'd react like that. So, are we finally getting back at that Torchwick prick?"**

 **"Sorry, Sun, we don't want to get friends involved if we don't have to." Ruby said.**

 **Sun looked at Jaune with a raised eyebrow before Jaune answered the unasked question, "I found out from the get-go and refused to not be included."**

 **Sun nodded, "Well, I'm agreeing with my blonde brother and so does Neptune." He said as he pointed his thumb out the window.**

 **The five leant out to see Neptune standing on the ledge by the window, acting cool. "Sup?" is all he says.**

 **"How'd you even get up here? Ruby asked.**

 **"I have my ways. But seriously, can I come in? We're like really high up." He said nervously.**

"He either climbed up the water pipe, or was brought up by Sun," Jaune commented. "No way he got there in any other way – there _are_ no other ways."

"Maybe he can fly?"

"Doubt it."

Sun laughed. "I brought him up. Piggyback-style. He wasn't too happy about that, but that's Neptune for you. He's cool, but he doesn't know when to stop being cool."

 **Jaune just sighed, "Don't be a baby. I jumped out of this window before and I was fine." He said this as he helped Neptune inside. They stood in a circle and Ruby decided on the new plan.**

"Way to rub it in everyone's face that you have a lot of Aura," Yang snickered, causing him to pout. "Oh, come on, I was just teasing, you big baby."

Jaune's very mature response was a raspberry.

 **"Alright, Sun, you'll go with Blake. Since you're also a Faunus, you can back her up if things hit the fan." Sun stepped beside her and Blake didn't look happy. She gave Jaune a sideways look and Jaune just smiled with a small nod, meaning 'It's fine.' She gave her own nod and accepted the team up. "And, Neptune can go with Yang and Jaune."**

 **"Uh, Rubes, my bike sits two." Yang said raising two fingers.**

 **"And even though I could keep up on foot, I don't wanna burn through my supply of lightning dust just yet, Rosebud." Jaune added.**

"Your bike sits as many people as you want, remember when you brought home _six_ people, all on your bike?" Ruby grumbled. "You just don't want him with you and Jaune."

Yang shrugged. As long as her other self wasn't called out on that, she didn't care.

 **Ruby thought about that and sighed, "Guess that means Neptune can tag along with us." Weiss looked happy at this and looked at Jaune who put a fake smile on for her. "Alright, let's head out!" Ruby declared.**

 **They all started to leave and Jaune whispered, just barely audibly, "Be careful." Blake heard him and just nodded to him.**

Weiss grumbled. Neptune might've been cool, and she could believe Sun when he said that he was a good friend, but he wasn't exactly boyfriend material. He would've been okay… hadn't it been for his skirt-chasing ways.

Pyrrha patted her shoulder comfortingly, seeing as the rest of her team wasn't close by.

* * *

 **Jaune eventually found himself on Yang's bike, seated behind her and holding onto her as she drove in and out of traffic at high speeds. He was shocked by this at first but eventually came to the conclusion that this was Yang and shouldn't be surprised at this point. He also realized this was the closest he's been to her in a while. He could smell her shampoo because of their close proximity and he could only smile. Unlike Blake, Yang had a way to just energize him when she was near. He was taken out of his thoughts when she spoke over the wind. "Going too fast for you, Hero?"**

"Knowing you, it should've been obvious you wouldn't have gone slow," Jaune sighed. His motion sickness might've been helped by his Aura, but he still didn't like going so fast, for safety measure. He wasn't a thrillseeker.

"Hey, we needed to be fast, I delivered fast," Yang grinned like crazy, loving to go so fast on her bike.

"Why didn't you dad buy you a bicycle? At least then you wouldn't have been able to go too fast without breaking it…"

"Shut it Angel Boy!"

 **Jaune just rolled his eyes, "Yang, I literally move as fast as lightning. If anything you are too slow."**

 **She turned slightly to look at him. "That a challenge?" she asked seriously.**

 **Jaune just smirked, "It is."**

 **She turned back to the road, "Better hold on tight then."**

 **Jaune just smiled, "Yes, ma'am." Was all he said as he wrapped his arms around her stomach a bit tighter and scooted closer to leaned against her back. She smiled and blushed before she kicked it into high gear and drove even more erratic if that was even possible.**

"Yang blushing out of mere contact? I'll believe it when it'll actually happen," Jaune snorted, wrapping an arm around the girl to prove his point. "If anything, if something does this, she's more likely to punch their lights out…. Preceded by their teeth."

Silence was all the answer he got. Blinking at that, he looked around to see everyone's shocked faces, Qrow's and Goodwitch's outraged ones, Phoenix turning red to try and contain his laughters, and Yang also glowing red like a stoplight.

Wait a second, why was Yang bl-

He was touching something very soft.

He flexed his fingers.

Yang eeped.

Jaune fainted in shock and embarrassment, and finally Phoenix's roaring laugh rang out, unlikely to stop anytime soon.

Waking Jaune up proved to be impossible, and all they could do was to turn back to the screen, with Yang still bright red.

 **They soon made it into a ruined part of Vale and they arrived at their destination. The two got off the bike and Yang removed her helmet. "That fast enough for you?" she smirked at him.**

 **He returned it, "Close but I'm sure you just did that so I would hold you."**

 **She just smiled and teasingly said, "I'll never tell." She started to walk away with a noticeable sway in her hips, "Come on, my friend is in here."**

 **Jaune shook his head slightly with a smile before following her, "And where is here?" Jaune saw two people dressed in identical black suits and hats with red sunglasses but as soon as they saw Yang they ran into the building. Jaune just raised an eyebrow. "Yang, what did you do the last time you were here?"**

 **Yang shrugged, "Asked for information and when they were being rude, I kicked their asses." She said before she added sheepishly, "And maybe destroyed the club."**

Ironwood looked at Phoenix, who shrugged. As he said, he didn't condone their actions. That particular tantrum of Yang's had really looked useless and needlessly violent.

 **Jaune just sighed and ran a hand down his face, "I really shouldn't be surprised by your antics anymore, Sun Fire." She just smiled at him. They made it in time to see the henchmen close the doors behind them. Yang cracked her knuckles but Jaune placed his hand on her shoulder, "Allow me to get the door for you, Milady." She smiled and nodded. He grabbed Kakiri's handle with his right hand and his eyes shifted to red before he kicked the door in. He saw a number of henchmen holding guns at him and all he did was raise an eyebrow before Yang stepped forward.**

 **"Guess who's back!" is all she shouted but no one lowered their weapons.**

 **"Mind defining friend for me? Because if they're your friends than I must be your husband by this point." Jaune said casually and missed Yang's blush.**

"Or brother," Ruby added.

"Or father," Weiss grinned, joining in.

Yang grinned mischievously. "Or bike. So that I can _mount_ him properly."

A ton of booing and footwear soon buried the poor girl. Though to be honest, she asked for that.

 **Soon a big guy in a suit stepped forward. "Stop, stop! Nobody shoot! Blondie, you're here. Why?"**

 **Yang just walked forward, "You still owe me a drink." She said as she started to drag him away. Jaune just chuckled and followed her, missing the stares he got from the twins standing at the door.**

 **The big guy was now behind the bar and Yang was in front of the bar and was handed a Strawberry Sunrise. She was sipping it and he looked to Jaune. "You want something?" he said somewhat rude.**

 **Jaune shrugged. "Might as well. Rum and coke." He said as he put some Lien on the table. The big guy took the money and handed Jaune his drink. He took a sip and found it perfect. He soon noticed Yang looking at him with a smile as her finger traces the top of her glass. "What?"**

 **"Didn't know you drink." she said teasingly.**

 **"I didn't but your uncle is a bad influence. Besides, with my aura levels one drink doesn't do much." Jaune said as he took another sip.**

"Jaune can drink a pro drunkard under the table," Ren said with a straight face. Everyone looked at him, and he cracked a smile. "Just kidding. He hates alcohol. It makes him light-headed and slightly murderous."

"Fits with the family he's got," Blake commented, and many shuddered at the thought of the Arc family.

"I don't think Russel is ever going to look at Jaune again without shitting his pants," Nora grinned cheerfully.

 **"So, is this your boyfriend, Blondie?" The big guy asked while crossing his arms over his chest.**

 **Yang just turned to him, "That's not any of your business. What you need to know is that if you don't tell me what I want to know, I may make an even bigger mess than last time, Junior."**

 **Junior gulped before turning to Jaune, "Don't look at me. I'm just here to make sure she doesn't kill anyone." He looked at her, "But maiming and serious injuries are still allowed."**

"MAIMING AND SERIOUS INJURIES ARE NOT ALLOWED!" No secret who that was.

 **Yang smiled evilly and turned back to Junior, who was now sweating bullets. Jaune turned away and leaned against the bar sipping his drink. He was fine with letting Yang handling this, the old bad cop and not caring cop always works. Soon he heard a conversation from two of the henchmen further down the bar from them.**

 **"I don't understand why the boss puts up with that bimbo." The first one said.**

"Maybe because she can kick everyone's asses to Hell and back?" Nora grinned scarily.

"It shouldn't be allowed," Winter stated sternly. "She should be expelled from Beacon for a crime against a civilian. Against _several_ civilians. Criminals or not, they are still human beings and you injured several of them."

Yang shrugged, not seeing her point.

 **"He's probably getting some on the side. I mean, look at her. There's no way she hasn't been around the block once or twice." The second said in a sneer.**

"Fuckers." Everyone was shocked to hear Pyrrha say such a thing, but the champion didn't care. "I hate when people think that a pretty girl can't be worth of respect and that if she has contacts in high places, she must've gotten there by whoring herself out."

Still shocked by her foul mouth, Weiss nodded shakily in agreement.

 **"True. Maybe if we pay her enough she'll give us a go." The first said and they both started laughing. That was until Jaune grabbed them by their throats before he threw them across the club and into the far wall. They fell and saw Jaune walking over, clearly angry.**

 **"Wanna say that again? Because I'm all ears!" he shouted while cracking his knuckles. He soon saw all the other henchmen pull their guns and aim at him. "Wrong choice." Was all he said before the air around him burst into flames, making him look like some kind of demon. "Who's got the balls?" was all he asked with a sadistic smile on his face. They were all shaking now. "Thought so. Now, let me make this clear. Any of you so much as look at Sun Fire wrong and I'll have to show you what happens when I'm pissed." He said with a commanding tone as the henchmen were still shaking in their boots. He stared them down for a little while before he extinguished the flames. He walked back over to the bar. Junior was terrified and Yang was just shocked. "Has he talked yet?"**

"Our Jaune could look like a literal Angel of Vengeance with a little practice in intimidation," Nora grinned, thinking of the possibilities. "Or a little bit of alcohol~"

"Nora, we are not drugging Jaune just so you can have a partner in wrecking havoc."

"Aww…"

"Not unless I can have some too."

Nora froze and shivered. "Renny, no. No alcohol." Ren grumbled and turned away. In response to the questioning stares, Nora shivered again. "A drunk Ren is terrifying. The last time we fought a Grimm when he was drunk, he took thirty minutes to kill it…"

"That's a lot, I'm guessing he's not very coordinated?" Yang guessed, fairly familiar with the symptoms of drunkenness.

"No, he defeated it in a bit over thirty seconds. The rest was torture."

A shocked silence fell on the room.

"Ren, are you sure your last name is Lie and not Arc?" Blake asked, starting to get scared of the seemingly normal people in their group.

"Actually, my last name is Ren, not Lie. From where I come from, we call each other by last names," the stoic boy replied… well, stoically. "But I can assure you I am not related to Jaune as far as I know."

 **Yang just shook her head, "No. He's being difficult." She turned back to Junior with her eyes red now.**

 **Junior was terrified of the two red eyed blondes staring him down. "I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them, which is something I can relate to!" He shouted the last part to the henchmen.**

 **Yang just sighed and finished her drink, "Come on, Jaune." She started walking away from the bar. Jaune finished his drink before following her.**

 **"We get everything we needed?" He asked.**

 **"Everything we can. Hopefully the rest of the team is having better luck." The two of them were now outside and it was on the colder side. Jaune used his Semblance to create a small fireball in his hand to keep them warm. They were waiting to hear from the rest of the team. "You didn't need to do that, Jaune. I can handle myself."**

 **"I know. But they pissed me off. They have no right to talk about you like that." He got slightly angry and the fireball got hotter and bigger before he calmed down and it returned to normal.**

"Honestly, I think I would've probably wrecked the whole local a second time," Yang commented. "So he saved them more than me…"

"Aww, why are you allowed to wreck people while I am not?!" Nora pouted, deeply hurt that she, the Harbinger of Chaos, was not allowed to destroy things while the destroyer-wannabe across the hall could and was barely told off for it!

Ozpin chose not to answer that one. Call him a chicken, but he knew when he needed to shut his mouth.

 **"Let them talk. Not like it matters what they think about me, as long as the people who matter know the truth."**

 **"Maybe but they shouldn't talk about you when they don't know just how amazing you really are." Jaune said honestly.**

 **Yang just smiled, "Keep this up and I'll think you've fallen for me."**

 **Jaune didn't say anything before he took a deep breath and looked at her in the eyes. "I have." He said with as much honesty as he could.**

Aaaaand everyone deadpanned at that. "Seriously?" asked Weiss, a tick mark on her forehead. "Just like that, out in the open without even explaining?"

Phoenix grinned. It seemed they didn't like the romantic parts as much as he did.

"It's getting old," Ozpin told him, as if he could read his thoughts. "As much as I wish all the happiness I can on the Swordsman, these kinds of situations are honestly getting… normal. And as normal they are starting to be… boring, if I may use that word without offence."

Phoenix just shrugged. "Everyone's got opinions. Honestly, I think we're lucky to be watching this instead of some horror universe where people get raped and tortured to death every two minutes just for the fun of it."

 **Yang's eyes went wide and she hugged him tightly. "You, you idiot! Why haven't you told me sooner?" Jaune lost his concentration and the fireball faded out of existence.**

 **Jaune just sighed, "Because it's complicated." Yang just looked at him confused. Jaune closed his eyes and steeled himself. He looked back to her. "Yang, you aren't the only one I've fallen in love with." Her eyes showed shock but Jaune had to continue or he'd lose his nerve. "I've fallen for you, Blake, Pyrrha and most recently, Weiss and Ruby. I didn't know what to do. I want to make you all happy but I knew that wasn't possible and eventually I'd hurt all of you. My mother found out and told me to just listen to my heart and do what it says. And it's telling me that I love you all." He turned away slightly. "And that just makes me sound so conceited."**

Weiss's tick mark got even bigger. _'He's not so unlike Neptune,'_ she seethed silently, glancing at their own Jaune. _'At least he realizes what kind of mess this is, and is not only confused, but reluctant. The reason why he's been going along with this is not to hurt any of their feelings. He is actually aware of it means to have a harem. And how unlikely it is to work no matter what.'_

Blissfully unaware of the heiress's thoughts, Pyrrha's were instead going in a different direction. _'Do I really want to share him? Sure, if he were to pursue other girls, I would support him but… once we start dating, will I be okay seeing him being with others? I supported him with Weiss yet it hurt… would this hurt as well? Would it work? And why am I imagining myself and Jaune and the others in a sevensome?! Is that even a word?! And no human being has that much stamina!'_

 **Yang was just staring in shock but eventually she found her voice, "Do any of the others know?"**

 **Jaune nodded, "Blake does. She knows everything and she's the one that is trying to convince me to go along with... 'it'."**

 **"It?" Yang asked.**

 **Jaune took another deep breath, "My mother said that even if I fell in love with and even dated multiple girls, that my family would accept it. Blake heard this and agreed to it, as crazy as that sounds." He looked back to her. "She thinks that as long as I love you all equally and treat you with respect, we could make it work."**

 **Yang was going through a mental overload at this point, "You want a harem?" She said in disbelief.**

"We were bound to find out sooner or later, but still, being told that the guy you have a crush on is in love with four other girls… man, that must be quite the psychological bombshell," Yang commented, wincing in sympathy for her other self. _'Is that how Jaune feels? Or does Jaune feel even worse?'_

 **Jaune just shrugged, "I don't know. I want you all to be happy, if I can do that and if you all are okay with that then I would agree. But, if not." He sighed, "I would let you all go and let you find someone else to be happy with."**

Weiss was not completely impressed. That sounded nice, but honestly, in the end it was simply being a normal person and not a yandere or something.

 **Yang was just taking all of this in. She didn't know what to say. Jaune was always so honest, even now she could hear the sincerity in his words. He truly cared for all of them and he wanted them to be happy. But, could this actually work? Could she be okay with this? The train of thought was broken when both of their scrolls started to go off. Blake's voice came through, "Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back-" She was interrupted by Sun. "HELP! Big robot! And it's big! Really big! That Torchwick prick is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something!"**

 **Yang spoke up, "Where are you guys?"**

 **Both of them turned to see Blake and Sun running through the street behind them with a Paladin in hot pursuit and Sun was shouting, "HURRY!"**

 **Jaune just turned to Yang, "That was convenient." Yang quickly jumped on her bike and Jaune grabbed Raikiri's handle and his eyes shifted to yellow. "I'll go on ahead."**

 **Before she could argue, Jaune took off in a bolt of lightning. Yang just muttered out, "You better be safe. We have things to discuss."**

"Damn yes we do," Yang nodded in agreement with her alternate self.

Phoenix just shrugged. "Well, then why didn't you discuss them with _your_ Jaune?"

"Huh…"

"Just as I thought. You didn't think of it," Phoenix sighed in faux disappointment. "My advice is that after the viewing, you, Ruby, Blake and Jaune have a talk. I mean, I'm all for you guys being together but… I'm not forcing you or anything. You gotta be happy to make it work and right now none of you is happy. Jaune's under pressure… well, actually he's down for the count right now, but you know what I mean. And you three are worried and tense and nervous because of what could be the outcome of his thinking break time. You fear he might reject one or more of you, and even worse you feel guilty because you hope it's the other two and not you. You may be teenagers but you're training to become Hunters. Act like adults, and talk about it."

"Most adults-"

"Most adults aren't adults in the head but only in body," Phoenix cut Ruby off. "Also, missy, the old excuse of 'most people don't' doesn't work against me. I am excuse-proof."

A beat of silence.

"Yes, I just invented that word. Deal with it."

* * *

 **Jaune followed behind them but only caught up when they were running down the highway. Jaune went full speed past the Paladin and landed on a car in front of Sun and Blake. "I thought Yang was the one that started trouble? Not you, Kitten."**

"HEY!" Yang was then cowed by everyone's glares. "I… don't… cause trouble…"

"Should we start listing off?" Goodwitch scowled at her, remembering all the property damage Ozpin conveniently waved off and told her to repair.

"N-No! Let's continue!"

 **"Can we talk about this later?" Blake asked. Jaune nodded before he raised his hand into the air. He channeled all of his electricity between them before he shot a giant arc of lightning at it. The Paladin got hit and stopped for a few seconds before it started to run at them again.**

 **Jaune was breathing hard as his eyes shifted back to normal, "Well, that didn't work." Soon the Paladin was taking blasts from above and all three of them saw Neptune jump off of an overpass and impale it with a trident. Sun quickly created two clones and sent them at the Paladin. They shattered against it and Sun jumped towards it with his bo staff, but it just spun and knocked Neptune into him. Which sent those two off the highway. Jaune just sighed. Soon Weiss jumped down from another overpass and impaled Myrtenaster into the road to create a sheet of ice. It lost its footing and slid directly at Weiss. Jaune drew Kakiri with his right and Dokiri with his left. As his eyes shifted to the respective colors, he used his aura and jumped towards it. He intercepted the Paladin before it could reach Weiss and the force pushed the two off the ramp and landed below. Jaune jumped and rolled to land beside Ruby.**

"That didn't happen," Weiss stated flatly. She might not like Neptune, doubting every single one of the Swordsman's actions, but she still didn't like being belittled. She had calculated perfectly well how the mech would've slid down and fallen off the street.

Everyone just shrugged. Alternative universe dynamics were weird. Even Phoenix didn't fully understand how the hell some things happened.

 _'Jaune being Salem's son? Okay. Jaune being Ozpin's son? Okay. Jaune being Salem's and Ozpin's grand-grand-grand-grand-times-million-grands-grandson? Okay. But Jaune being Salem's and current-Ozpin's son because they decided to take a break from the war and screw each other's brains out? No, that, I will never understand.'_

 **Soon the rest of RWBY joined them and the Paladin moved towards them, ready to fight. "Freezer Burn!" Ruby shouted as she, Blake and Jaune jumped backwards as Weiss and Yang created a mist. Jaune was so glad Ruby told him about their team moves. The Paladin starts to fire but Ruby and Jaune jump forward to cut into it causing it to falter. "Checkmate!" Ruby shouted another command. Weiss and Blake ran forward and started attacking the sensors and weak points. Jaune decided to attack its blind spot, using both his sword with his enhanced strength. The Paladin fired off some missiles, Weiss and Blake were able to dodge them but Jaune took one due to his lessened speed but it only dazed him because of his improved endurance.**

 **Jaune stood up and saw Weiss block an energy blast before sending a Glyph at Blake. Ruby called for another command, "Ladybug!" Ruby and Blake used their increased speed, Blake's due to the Time Dilation Glyph, to start attacking the Paladin's legs. They both jumped up and cut off its left arm. Jaune grabbed it before spinning and smashing it into it, sending the whole thing off balance. Yang jumped onto the back of it and started to unload shots into it. The Paladin ran backwards and smashed her through two pillars before embedding her in the third and punches her through it. Jaune lost it and threw the arm at it before slamming his fist onto the ground. The Paladin took the hit before it was impaled by four earth spikes through the legs.**

"Ohh, so that's why you were moving so fast!" Yang exclaimed, looking at Blake, who just stared blankly at her.

"Seriously?"

"What? I wasn't looking when Weiss cast her Glyph! I thought you were keeping up with my baby sister's speed on your own!"

 **Yang rose up with her Semblance in full effect. The Paladin threw a punch and Yang countered it with her own. The remaining arm is shattered from the force. "Bumblebee! Ice flower!" Ruby shouted. Weiss and Ruby managed to freeze the Paladin with a combo of Ice Glyphs and Crescent Rose's bullets, and along with the earth spikes, completely immobilized it. Blake, meanwhile, was spinning Yang around with Gambol Shroud. Yang gave Jaune a look and he held his hand out. She grabbed it and the two continued to gain momentum. As they were closing in, Yang let go of Gambol Shroud and the two hit it with all their strength, one with Ember Celica and the other with a fist of fire. The Paladin was sent flying and it shattered on impact with Roman falling out.**

 **As he was getting up, dazed, he was saying, "Just go this cleaned..." he looked to see Yang fire a shot and Jaune throw a fireball. But he was saved by an ice cream colored girl, who dropped in front of them and deflected it with an umbrella. "Always a pleasure! Neo, if you would…" She curtsied with a bow and Yang charged forward to punch them, only for them to shatter and for her to get hit by the fist of another Paladin.**

"There's two of them now?!" All of Team RWBY exclaimed.

"I'm getting sick of these changes too," Ironwood murmured. Next what? There were two Generals of Atlas so that the Swordsman could defeat his evil twin that threatened to destroy the whole known world?

Out of the corner of his eyes, he spied Phoenix writing something down in his notebook.

 **Jaune managed to catch her and slow them down. He could tell that her aura was low. He looked up to see this new Paladin running towards them. Quickly handing Yang to Blake before he shot forward and caught the fist it threw. He then stomped the ground and formed two stone pillars that sent it backwards. Jaune had enough at this point. He impaled his swords into the ground before he removed his sheathes from his back and used his strength to throw them. They landed in the ground about thirty feet away. He then removed his hoodie and handed it to Blake, "Get to my sheathes. That should be far enough for you girls to not get caught up in it." She looked at him confused until she understood what he meant. Blake and Weiss helped Yang to her feet and started moving away with Ruby as quickly as possible.**

 **As soon as they were by the sheathes, Jaune focused and used what he learned from practicing Particle; he started to weave the burning fire in his aura with the crushing earth that also resided in him. The new energy formed quicker and more powerful than ever before. As the fusion was completing, he picked up his swords and combined them. A wave of scarlet energy erupted from his body, turning all the ground within twenty feet of him into molten rock. The Paladin sank slightly into it and the girls could feel the intense heat from it, even from ten feet away. Jaune stood in the middle of the molten rock, on the only patch of solid ground left. He was wielding a longsword that was a few inches longer than Hyokiri and Mokukiri but was still shorter than Jinkiri, due to Kakiri's new broadsword form. The circuits and edges were glowing scarlet and so were his eyes. "Erupt, Yogankiri!"**

"Shouldn't it be as long as Jinkiri, since Kakiri's a greatsword either way?" Weiss questioned.

"Maybe he made it so that the length adjusts and the more swords he adds, the longer it gets," Ruby explained, or tried to. "So Kakiri would lose a bit of length with a single other sword, but retain it when used with two. Does this make sense?"

"Only barely, and only in theory."

 **The Paladin regained its footing but then they all heard a masculine voice come from the robot, "Impressive, human scum. But this won't stop me! We will make you kneel to the White Fang!" It shot a volley of missiles towards him and Jaune just raised his hand, a wave of lava came up and absorbed the missiles before it solidified and exploded. Before the White Fang member could react, Jaune swung his sword upwards and sent a wave of molten rock towards it. It was hit and sent backwards and as it slowed down, Jaune stomped his foot to send up five molten rocks from the ground and sent them at the Paladin. It got bombarded before opening fire on Jaune with all of its guns. Jaune brought up another wave of lava to solidify it into a wall and shot off to the side with his aura. He started to surf on the lava by solidifying the lava below him and turning it into an impromptu surfboard. He made a series of slashes and sent crescent shaped molten rock from the ground at the White Fang member. The rock started to heat up the metal of the Paladin, warping it before the rock solidified again.**

"That's _way_ too overpowered," Winter deadpanned.

Phoenix shrugged. "I explain how once, I'm not gonna do it again. Besides, be glad he's not on the level where he can manipulate matter and energy with his mind, without Dust."

Everyone looked at him flatly.

He just shrugged once more. "What? If you train your Semblance enough, anyone can reach that. I knew one guy who reached the point where he manipulated time… then he got lost in time and I've never seen him since. Too bad, he made some wicked dishes."

 **Jaune winced in pain and noticed that his sleeves were burnt up to his elbows from the intense heat and he had severe burns on his arms. 'Better wrap this up, now.' Jaune thought before he jumped with his aura and landed in front of the Paladin, he impaled Yogankiri into the ground and liquefied the ground below the Paladin and it sank up to its waist. Jaune started to slash into it, the heat of the blade melting into the metal with each slash. It punched him in the chest to try to get him away from it. But he tanked the hit but slid back a few feet. The Paladin went for a last ditch effort and tried to fire its energy blast at close range. Jaune swung Yogankiri with two hands into the ground and the lava it was stuck in erupted. The Paladin was thrown up by the force of the eruption and slammed into the ground shortly after. It was barely recognizable now, from the impact and the intense heat warping the entire thing.**

 **Jaune tore open the cockpit and the beaten White Fang member fell out of it. He was still in uniform but he could see his wolf tail. In a ragged voice he started to speak, "Do it, human. I don't need your pity. Finish what you started!"**

 **Jaune raised his sword with the intent to bring it down through his chest but stopped. He was beaten and his death would just be one more he'd have to live with. He lowered his arm and pointed his other hand at the molten rock, solidifying it. "No. Your life isn't worth more of my soul." Jaune stated as he was walking away. Jaune looked to see that his shirt sleeves were burnt off completely now and the burns went almost up to his shoulders. His armor was also red hot at this point and his chest plate had a huge dent in it. If not for his aura, his chest would've been crushed, going by how the armor looked. He was making his way over to RWBY and they were all shocked by his display.**

"So I guess extreme heat is the Elemental Backlash for that," Weiss noted, slightly worried.

"Well, thus far it's the most dangerous," Yang replied. "Nothing's ever compared to this. Well, not exactly but still…"

 **But something inside of him told him to turn around and as he did he saw the White Fang member holding a rifle and aiming it at the girls behind him. The world seemed to go in slow motion. Not even hesitating, he quickly jumped to his right and swung his sword towards him. A wave of molten rock surged towards the White Fang member as he heard the shot. Jaune felt his aura shatter and the bullet tear into the left side of his chest before it exploded out of his back. Jaune landed on the ground and dropped his sword as he heard someone screaming in intense pain.**

 **Jaune was also in a world of pain, now that his aura was completely gone. He felt something wet and warm underneath him as he rolled to his back. His vision started to go black when he heard people screaming. He turned his head to see RWBY running towards him. Whatever they were saying, he couldn't understand. But he had content smile as his world continued to grow darker, 'At least they're safe.' Was the last thing he thought as his vision went completely black.**

"No!" all the students screamed, worried sick for their friend.

"Ugh…" Jaune slowly came to again, holding his hurting head. "What happened? Did I get drunk? And why's everybody screaming, I got a bloody headache here…"

As Goodwitch explained to him what happened, everyone else continued to act on their worry in their own way. Ironwood, Qrow, Ozpin and Winter looked unaffected, though they surely hadn't liked seeing the Swordsman lose consciousness and likely die.

Cinder looked, and actually was, bored.

Sun was panicking, Yang was about to use her Semblance, Ruby was zipping all around in worry. Blake seemed in slight shock. Pyrrha had fainted. Ren was using his Semblance on both himself and Nora, cancelling the girl's emotions for the first time in years. And Weiss felt guilty for all the bad thoughts she'd had about the Swordsman… even though he deserved those.

And then everyone froze.

Phoenix hummed contentedly as small blue crystals began to appear in the air in front of them.

"Is it the other guy?"

"Key or whatever his name was?"

"Yeah, him, do you think he's here to send us back?"

"Wait, but… wouldn't that mean…"

"T-That the Swordsman…?"

Phoenix shook his head, slightly amused. Of course the story wasn't over. That'd be so very disappointing. He was better than that. Even had the Swordsman died, he would've still at least written an epilogue to tie things up, not leave such an open mess as end of the story.

"Not feeling like talking with them?" he asked idly.

"Aaargh! Phoenix's impossible to get!"

A young man walked up to him from behind and stood with his arms crossed.

He was an odd man to say the least, with deep violent dragon wings adorning his back, small horns poking out of his hair on his forehead, draconic eyes and amethyst crystals embedded into the skin of his hands and face. Other than that, he had long brown hair tied in a ponytail that went down his back and greenish-brown eyes, and a Van Dyke goatee. The crystals appeared on his forehead, three in a line, on his cheeks, looking like large freckles, on the back of his neck, on the back of his hands and on his wings. The skin of his hands and around his eyes had delicate purple scales covering it, though he had no claws.

He also wore some sort of scale-made armour that covered his entire torso, legs and arms up to the hands, though a pair of gauntlets were hanging from his belt, sign he had simply taken them off. Over the armour he wore a black vest with his symbol, a rose with dragon wings, the Dragon Rose, emblazoned on front and back.

"I'm far from 'impossible to get'," Phoenix snorted.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." For a few seconds, the two just watched as the Watchers continued to stare at the falling crystals and fire out guesses as to why he was coming. "Did they seriously not notice me?"

"Seems so."

"And did they forget that you are the one who wrote that, and thus could answer their questions as to whether Big J's dead or not?"

"I may or may not have used my magic to make them forget… I'd like not to spoil the surprise."

"Huh…" Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh, for obviously it was him, just shrugged and then shook his head. "Anyway! Wanted to see me, huh? I'm guessing it's for your 'secret project'."

"It's not a secret."

"Of course it's not, there are only two people in existence who know about it, but it's not a secret."

"…You're annoying."

"I try my best. So!" Khor produced a large chunk of metal from somewhere on his person. He had been practising his Dimensional Anime Store/Inventory. "Auruthystus, the best I got. But you might want to use it's draconic name when you're forging it, makes magic flow better. It's Viennkhor. Or Khorvienn, either is fine actually."

The metal looked… interesting to say the least. One second one might say it looked like any normal chunk of gold, but soon a purplish tint would spread, and in a few second, the metal would look like a piece of amethyst. Yet, gold would soon return, and again and again in a never-ending circle.

There was a reason why the Joak-Khazerak, or Gem-Metals, were kept away from people's eyes. They could give anyone a headache by looking at them for too long.

"Ah, I will keep that in mind," Phoenix thanked him with a smile as he took the metal. "But… shouldn't you be with the guys… huh… the Vikings… at the moment?"

"Froze time over there. I didn't want to excuse myself and show them that there is a way outta there yet," Khor replied with a shrug. "That, and H is far too smart. I'd rather not have him figure out a way to open the door and get lost in my fortress."

"That'd be a sight to see."

"That'd be a nightmare for me."

The two shared a chuckle before Khor yawned and decided he'd stayed enough. "Well, I guess I'm going back in there. Good luck with your secret project."

"It's… really, not a secret."

"Eh, details." Khor walked away.

As soon as he disappeared from view, the crystals stopped appearing.

"Wait, where is the guy?" Yang wondered, having forgotten the houseowner's actual name. "I thought he was coming here. Phoenix, do you know wh-"

She barely managed to catch the final embers of a fire before even those disappeared, and no Writer could be seen on the rock balcony they were housed on.

"-ere did he go?"


	39. Chapter 38

**_Heya guys. Yeah, I know I should've updated Rose, but I had no idea how to start that chapter, so I thought you'd rather have me skipping it and writing WTES, instead of getting neither._**

Yang looked around, confused. "Wait, where did Phoenix go?"

"Me? Nowhere." Everyone jumped when Phoenix spoke up from beside the water fountain, sipping coffee from a mug with the words 'A Story a Day Keeps Boredom Away!' written on it. "Why do you ask?"

"But, you…" Yang turned to look at where she'd last seen the Writer. "You were there!"

"Yes I was. Thank you for acknowledging where I've spent the whole last viewing," he replied sarcastically, before sipping his coffee again.

"You mean you used your powers just to teleport when you could've crossed the same distance in twenty steps at most?" Weiss interjected, raising an eyebrow.

Phoenix shrugged. "Hey, I thought you wanted to speak with Khor. I actually have something for him, so if you want you can ask him questions while he's here." He glanced up and smirked. "Oh, and by the way, he's right behind me."

"I hate you," a voice piped up from behind him, intriguing the Watchers, before a small black cat hopped down the edge of the water fountain and stepped around Phoenix, giving him the stink eye. "Way to ruin the surprise."

"Why am I not surprised to see a talking cat?" sighed Winter. At first, she had been about to question her own sanity. Now, she was questioning the sanity of the universe as a whole.

The cat meowed annoyed at her, before a giant topaz burst from the ground, encasing it. The Watchers didn't even have the time to try and save the kitty, that the topaz cracked and shattered, revealing the odd man -who they had not noticed- who had met with Phoenix earlier.

"Uh…" Jaune blinked and stared at him. "Are you Mr Khor?"

"Yes, why, is it not obvious?" Khor lifted his arms as if to present himself to the world. "Don't you recognize me?"

"So far you've taken a few forms already…" commented Blake.

"I love messing with people, changing appearance is fun," shrugged the crystal-themed Writer, before deciding to completely ignore them and turning to look at Phoenix. "So… it's been a while, huh?"

"It felt like weeks," smirked the flame-themed man.

"Damn, took you long enough to forge them." Khor ducked under a playful slap from the other before leaning closer conspiratorially. "Do you have the goods?"

Phoenix just gave him a deadpan look. "Remind me, how are we friends again?"

"We share a hobby and a mutual dislike for stupid people, we discuss ideas and we admire each other's works," Khor listed off without missing a beat. "So… Have you brought them?"

Phoenix sighed, but smiled. "Yes. They're here." He held out a hand and, with a plume of flames, two daggers appeared.

The first one's blade was single-edged, with the sharpened half of a purple colour and the dull half black with silvery flames decorating it. The guard was made of gold while the handle was purple, with the symbol of a rose with dragon wings on it. The sheath was purple as well, with dragon scales carved into the woods as decoration. Khor grabbed that one and lifted it up, giddy with excitement. As he did, the sharpened edge seemed to go from purple to gold for a second.

The second dagger was built similarly, but with different decorations. Its sharpened edge was black, which seemed to flash silver when Khor picked it up to examine it, while the dull half was purple with golden vein-like patterns running down its length. The guard was made of silver while the handle was black, with Phoenix's simple on it, a fire with flaming wings and five rings forming a chain underneath it. Its sheathe was black like the handle, with feathers carved into it. After a short examination, the crystal-themed Writer gave the second one back to the flame-themed author.

While Khor was still fanboying over his dagger, Phoenix continued, "I'm sure you have already magically analysed them, but in case you haven't, these are magical. They will allow you to use a minor version of my flames, and in exchange, they will allow me to use a minor version of your crystal powers."

"Time for testing!" the crystal-dragon-hybrid, immediately creating flaming obsidian daggers and aiming them at Cinder. "Three-two-one-burn bitch, burn!"

Phoenix teleported the flaming knives of death away before they could get too far.

Somewhere in the Multiverse, Pyrrha watched shocked as the Cinder in front of her got struck by several black daggers encased in flames, that killed her on the spot and vaporized the body. The poor girl was so surprised that she forgot she had walked up there to die in the first place. After Ruby arrived and brought her back, Pyrrha received one hell of a lecture from Jaune, Nora and Ren, but also congratulations on having killed Cinder. The poor girl never managed to tell anyone what had really happened. But after she started dating Jaune, she decided no one really needed to know anyway.

Back to the Watchers and Writers, Phoenix was looking at Khor with a raised eyebrow. "Why do I feel like you're setting up a comedy show?"

"The idiot and the boring? Now that's a famous duo." Khor didn't even bother correcting him.

"You're acting even more random and silly than usual," commented the flame user.

Khor lost his smile and just shrugged with a neutral look on his face. "Yeah, but hey, look at their reactions."

Both of them turned to look at the students, who were looking back at them as if they were three-headed aliens. Mostly at Khor though.

"Fair point," conceded Phoenix.

"Is there anything else?" asked Khor. Several students tried to speak up, to try and ask him if they were being sent home, since the Swordsman was apparently dead. The Writer just ignored them all. "No? Perfect! Then see you and goodbye!"

And with that, he threw himself into the chasm and flew away with his wings.

"What the hell was that?" exploded Qrow. "I knew he was insane but that's nuts!"

"He's not usually like this, he was probably just making fun of you," shrugged Phoenix.

"Why?!"

The Writer repeated the motion. "Hey, I'm his friend, not his psychiatrist."

"He has a psychiatrist?" asked Ruby, suddenly feeling nervous. Had they been kidnapped by an actual psychopath?

"Not that I know of, and I honestly don't think so. He's usually a pretty serious guy," replied Phoenix, drinking more of his coffee. "He actually likes to work seriously, he says it gives him something to focus on. He has a little brother he babysits so it's not really that random and irresponsible. He just likes to let loose and behave stupidly from time to time."

Slightly comforted by his explanation, which however did not raise their respect for the houseowner by much, the Watchers glanced back at the screen. "So…" Yang spoke up. "Are we gonna start?"

Phoenix just shrugged. "If you want. I have to go. Yang and Pyrrha are about to have a fight and I gotta be there for it. So I'll leave you be. I'm sure Khor will start the viewing soon." He waved and disappeared in flames.

"Fight? Why would we fight?" wondered Pyrrha, exchanging a glance with the blonde brawler, who looked just as confused.

"No idea, Pyrrha. I wouldn't mind sparring with you whenever you feel up to it, but I didn't plan to fight you now…"

"Perhaps he wasn't talking about you two," Weiss spoke up sharply, rubbing her temples at what she perceived as dumbness on their part. When all the students (and some adults) glanced at her, she sighed. "We are literally watching an alternative universe. Would it be so impossible for him to have been referring to _another_ Yang and _another_ Pyrrha?"

"That makes sense," Blake agreed as everyone nodded in understanding. "Though I still wonder why. It's not like Khor was there when our team fought Team JNPR." She thought about it for a second. "Though that's not really surprising. Especially with how he just acted."

"Hey, look!" exclaimed Ruby, pointing at the screen.

"It's starting!" added Sun, hoping that the fluff that was the Swordsman's love life wouldn't be over so soon.

 **Team RWBY were in Beacon's Infirmary, sitting around one bed in particular. Jaune was laying in this bed, breathing deeply. After Jaune was shot, all of them had to pump as much of their aura into him to slow down the bleeding enough to get him to Beacon. Afterwards, it took the doctors hours to operate on him, two blood transfusions and three aura transfusions were used before he finally stabilized. These girls never left for a moment. While he was being operated on, they were in the waiting room and ever since he was moved to this bed, this is where they were. They all knew he'd be fine but seeing him in this condition made them all worried.**

Goodwitch wanted to speak up and advise her students against doing such things if one of their friends were to ever get hurt -certain in their choice of career- since their presence would not make him heal faster and if anything it could hinder the doctors, but she stopped herself. They would never actually listen and even if they did, they'd forget that advice the moment it was time to put it into practice.

And besides, it was understandable. Their friend had been hurt and they were worried and restless. No one could expect them to behave normally after seeing their friend get shot through the chest.

 **He was wearing a gown but they could clearly see the bandages wrapped from his fingers to halfway up his upper arms, more bandages were wrapped tightly around his upper chest. Jaune had severe burns up his arms, along with three cracked ribs from the punch he got from the Paladin. Not to mention the gunshot wound. They all somewhat blamed themselves for what happened to him and none of them wanted to think what could've happened if he didn't come with them. Ruby had been crying the entire time she was there, seeing her best friend in this condition was too much for her. The other three girls were trying their best to help her but were still just as hurt. Weiss was trying to hide her pain but she couldn't imagine what she'd do without him. He'd quickly turned to someone she trusted and cared for so much. Yang was trying to be strong for her sister but she was so scared. Having Jaune confess to her made her so happy, even if the rest of that conversation was shocking. Thinking of him not being the way he was before was too much. Blake was probably the most concerned out of the four. Here was the man she had fallen for and had loved more than any other before or ever thought possible. What was she supposed to do when he was this hurt? She was wearing the hoodie she had given him, refusing to take it off until she knew he was okay.**

Just about everyone raised an eyebrow at that.

"That sounds exaggerated," snorted Weiss. "Now, don't get me wrong – I do care about Jaune and if that were to happen, I would try to stay by his side as much as I could, and certainly I'd be terrified by the possibility of him dying, but I would never go as far as saying I wouldn't know what to do without him. As good of a friend as he is, he's still just a friend, not my entire life."

"I have to admit she's right…" added Blake, trying not to be offensive. Thankfully Jaune didn't seem to have considered it offensive. "While I do care about him and I like him, I've liked people before and I wouldn't react like that." She wilted slightly. "If anything, I think I'd be blaming myself for that injury. I know what you're about to say, I shouldn't, but I think that's what I'd think. And if I were to blame myself, I would hide away in my room or in the library instead of staying right next to the source of my guilt. No offence."

"None taken," nodded Jaune, shifting slightly to move his wings. "Honestly I agree with you. Ruby's was probably the only reaction that wasn't exaggerated. Even Yang's sounded like a tad too much." He thought about it a little. "Although… the Swordsman has interacted with your girls a lot more than I did. Ruby's the only one I've interacted with as much as the Swordsman has and her reaction is more or less what I was expecting, so maybe it's because the Swordsman's closer friends with you…"

"Or maybe he's rubbing off on us and we inherited his love for dramatics," laughed Nora, pretending to be wielding an imaginary sword. " _Erupt, Logankiri!_ "

"It's Yogankiri, Nora," Ren corrected her. "Unless you mean the Wolverine Cutter."

Just like every other time he joked, everyone stared at him in surprise. He sighed aggressively and raised his hands to the sky. "Oh, for the love of Oum, why am I the only one not allowed to have a sense of humour!?"

 **The rest of his team showed up not long after Jaune was brought in. Pyrrha was worried sick and livid at RWBY, while Nora was just as worried and was close to tears on a few occasions. Ren was worried but kept himself busy by trying to comfort his teammates. After knowing Jaune would be okay, they decided to return his weapons and armor to his locker for him. Jaune wasn't going to be able to fight for quite some time. Also, Ren thought it'd be best to get Pyrrha away from RWBY for a bit before she did something she would regret.**

"Again, that doesn't sound like Pyrrha or Nora," Jaune spoke up again. "No offence Nora, it's not that I don't think you'd be worried, it's just that I simply can't see you crying."

Nora shrugged. "Eh, fair enough."

"And I don't think Pyrrha would be angry at Team RWBY," Ren added as well.

Pyrrha fidgeted a little. "Well, actually… I would be angry. I wouldn't lash out and I wouldn't try to make it weigh on them, but I would kind of be angry… Hadn't they gone, he wouldn't have followed."

"Well, to be honest, that was unexpected enough in our world, in that world, with two Paladins to fight, it was definitely something we didn't think we'd be fighting," replied Yang, shrugging off her apology. "Though we could've taken the second one too."

 **Weiss and the others also convinced Ruby to go with Weiss to the cafeteria to get something to eat. None of them had eaten since the day before. This left Blake and Yang alone with him. Blake was just looking at his face while gently stroking his hair. Yang was looking at the two and couldn't help smiling. "So, you and Jaune, huh?"**

 **Blake froze for a second before she continued stroking his hair, "He told you?"**

 **"Yeah. Right before everything happened." She said as she remembered what happened less than a day ago.**

 **"How much did he tell you?" Blake asked, wanting to know how much she could talk about.**

 **"Just that he loves me and you. Along with Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha. That you two are together and that you're okay with him being with us as well."**

Jaune mentally gave the Swordsman the middle finger. He made it sound so easy.

Unbeknownst to him, Yang gave her other self a mental middle finger as well, cursing her for basically coming off as 'easy'. She was sure her other self had thought about it, but since it had happened offscreen, it looked like she was just oh-so-ready to jump into bed with him as long as his other girlfriend was okay with it. Not that far but close.

 **Blake chuckled weakly, "That pretty much covers it."**

 **"I'm still kinda shocked that you'd be okay with sharing him. You could have him to yourself."**

"Or maybe he would've broken up with me and gotten together with one of you," Blake replied with a monotone voice. "Which wouldn't be great. At all."

"Hey! I wouldn't do something like that!" Jaune exclaimed, offended.

"You wouldn't, because your mom probably taught you manners while holding a bloodied chainsaw, but who knows how the Swordsman would react? Wasn't he the first one to say he wasn't boyfriend material?" Blake shrugged. "Just saying."

"Okay, first, which mom? I got two." Everyone sweat-dropped at his reply. He hadn't even denied her claim. "And second, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't do it either. And he looks to be closer to you than I was, so you should know he wouldn't do that."

Blake just shrugged again. "Alternative universes. Anything can happen."

 **"Yeah. I could but I see the way he looks at the rest of you and it's the same way he looks at me." She had a small smile. "He genuinely loves all of us. Not because of social status or physical appearance but because of who we are. Besides, I know you all feel the same and I don't want to be happy if it just makes my closest friends hurt. We agree on that."**

Once again Jaune gave the Swordsman the middle finger for making it look so easy.

All his friends were also kinda pissed because while they knew it wasn't the 'other Blake's intention to make him sound like some kind of womanizer who fell in love with all girls around him, she did made it sound like he was easy.

 **Yang at this point had her hair over her shoulder and was playing with it nervously, "So, if I were to accept his offer…. you wouldn't be mad?"**

 **Blake stopped and looked at Yang. She just smiled a bit. "Not as long you respect the fact that him and I are also a couple."**

 **Yang smiled slightly, "This sounded crazy last night. Hell, it's still crazy." She looked at Jaune, "But after everything, I just wanna be with him. To show him how much I love him and see just how much he loves me."**

"I don't wanna be the party-pooper, but that looks too easy to be true," Qrow grumbled, glaring at the screen. "I mean, if it was that easy, there wouldn't be a single free girl in the entire world."

Most adults just shrugged, not really caring about it. To be honest, most adults didn't even want to be there in the first place. Except for Ozpin, because he had paperwork to do and he much preferred to stay and watch the Swordsman over doing that paperwork.

The students nodded, agreeing with the drunkard. "He's right. Having a crush is fairly common, but getting together is much harder than that," Pyrrha spoke up. _'I speak from experience...'_

"If anything, the fact other people also like the one I like would either make me more possessive, or make me give them up," Weiss added as well, nodding.

 **"Trust me. It's amazing." Blake said, smiling down at her boyfriend.**

 **Yang gave a teasing smile, "So, what have you two been doing in secret?"**

 **Blake blushed slightly, "Nothing like that. We usual find somewhere quiet and private to read." She started smiling, "He'll hold me close to him so I can listen to his heartbeat and feel his warmth. I'll remove my bow and he'll gently scratch my ears and I'll feel like I'm in heaven." She blushed a deeper shade. "Once or twice, he's kissed my ears and it makes me feel so happy." She sighed happily.**

Sun began to silently sob. "Why?" he whispered miserably, unheard by all but Cinder, who was sitting next to him with a flat look on her face. "Why is she always so sweet and girlish and giggly with the Swordsman? She can even _blush_ , for Oum's sake! Why can't I get even a glimpse of that Blake?"

"Because you're using the power of fluff," Cinder replied detachedly, examining her nails. "Which means you are completely powerless."

"You're cruel."

"Aww, you're so sweet."

 **Yang was listening the entire time with a smile, "Sounds amazing. What about the kissing?" she added teasingly.**

 **Blake just grinned at her, "You have no idea. When he kisses me, I can clearly feel how much he cares for me. And before you ask, yes we've made out a few times. Again, I can just feel how much he loves me. Plus, he makes me feel like I just want to live in those moments forever."**

Everyone, literally everyone, just stared flatly at the screen. Even Ruby, inexperienced as she was in romance (which actually applied to a lot of the others as well, girls and boys alike), knew that was exaggerating it more than a little.

"Okay, I get it feels great since there is love, but I feel like my other self is going off my books too much," Blake admitted, a tad embarrassed by how she was acting so flustered and girlish (which was a stupid adjective since last time she checked she was definitely a girl, and yet she was not 'girlish', so that was a dumb adjective no matter how it was used).

"Oh no, spare us!" Yang cried dramatically. "I don't wanna know what kind of porn you're into!"

"Shut up! For the umpteenth time, it's a dark fantasy novel, okay?!"

 **"That good, huh?" She looked at Jaune with a smile before turning to Blake, "With all of that, how are you not gonna be jealous if you see him kissing me or one of the others?"**

 **Blake thought about it for a while, "I think, I'll be jealous at first. But I'll just have to remind myself that he loves me just as much."**

Cinder wanted to hurl. She elbowed Sun. "Is this what your 'power of love' does? Turning people into sluts ready to spread their legs for others at the drop of a hat, even if those others are also dating four other people, just because they 'love' them? Because that sounds like an actual nightmare."

Sun just shrugged helplessly. "She didn't really put it in the best way…" he admitted sheepishly.

Blake face-palmed at her choice of words. "I probably meant that since I love him, I'll support him no matter what. Most likely, my other self isn't really happy with sharing him but she won't stop him if he really does love all of us…"

"That sounds only marginally better," drawled the Fake Maiden.

 **"That's mature of you." They were quiet for a while. "This is still crazy." Yang said trying not to laugh.**

 **Blake just nodded, "Yes it is but I think it'll be fine."**

"No it won't be fine and no that's not mature. If anything, it's extremely childish," Ironwood spoke up, frowning. "Believing you can balance a relationship with five people on top of the requirements of Beacon, one of the most prestigious schools on the planet, is a fantasy. Dividing your free time between them all together, them individually and your other friends is an impossible task that will only cause stress to everyone involved. The public opinion wouldn't help, either, as they would tear you to pieces and while you can act tough and say 'let them bark, I won't care', when you get treated like an outcast because of your relationship, it quickly puts a strain on said relationship. Fourth, all parties must be cared for equally lest they feel unloved. And finally, unless it is a polyamorous relationship, the target of multiple affections would be put under immense psychological stress because of all these points and more." He gestured to the winged boy in the room. "Just look at Mr Arc. He tried, just like the Swordsman is apparently doing, and yet now he has to distance himself from the others because he clearly cannot handle such a relationship – not even when he is here, amongst friends, where no one is judging them and they don't have to worry about dates or personal time. No, I believe the Swordsman's relationship is doomed since the start."

No one replied to the General. While not to the same extent, everyone was thinking more or less the same. How could they not? The man had raised several very good points.

* * *

 **Jaune was surrounded by darkness. He couldn't see or hear but he could feel how cold he was. "Where am I? What happened?" He was just floating in this abyss, not sure of anything. Soon he started to hear voices, two of them. They sounded so familiar but he couldn't place them. He tried to focus on them and soon he could feel warmth and something soft around him. The voices started to get louder and he recognized them as Blake's and Yang's. He tried to get to them anyway he could, the darkness soon started to fade.**

 **Jaune's eyes slowly opened to look up at the infirmary's ceiling, again. He groaned, "How the hell did I end up here?" he said in a raspy voice.**

"You jumped in front of a bullet," Ren commented flatly. A few people snickered, but stopped to look at him incredulously as soon as they realized he'd been the one to joke. "What? You are surprised by my jokes because you never hear them, so I thought of joking more, so you would be less surprised."

Nora patted his back with an encouraging smile. "Yay! You can do it, Ren!"

 **Before he knew it, he heard two people shouting. "Jaune!" Then he felt something on his lips. He looked to see Blake kissing him with small tears. He soon closed his eyes and returned it. Soon they pulled apart. "Wow. What'd I do to deserve that, Kitten?" he asked.**

Cinder pretended to retch, with Qrow doing the same. Everyone else was pretty much desensitised to PDA by then. It was clear they'd be seeing the Swordsman getting his face sucked on by girls all thorough the viewing of the universe, so they more or less just looked away until the kiss was over and then returned to watch without commenting.

 **She just wiped her tears away and smiled, "Just being you."**

 **He smiled and soon was wrapped in a hug. He saw blonde hair and knew it was Yang, "It's good to know you're okay." She said with a slightly shaky voice.**

 **His smile grew a bit and he wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you, Sun Fire." She soon pulled away and gave him a look he's rarely seen but he got distracted when he saw his arms. He held them out in front of him, "What happened?" he asked.**

"You used Yogankiri but you forgot that lava burns," Ren spoke up again, still using that flat tone from earlier. He once again received stares. _'I swear… I will make them see I'm not some emotionless statue!'_

Nora, as if sensing his thoughts -which wouldn't be too surprising given how close they were-, patted his back again. She kinda pitied him. She knew he had a sense of humour, but the others were really pushing it – was it really so surprising that the ever-emotionless Ren could actually joke?

 **Yang and Blake exchange looks before Blake spoke, "You don't remember last night?"**

 **"Last night?" he asked before the memories from night before flooded into his head. "Right. I took a bullet, didn't I?" He started to sit up before hissed in pain and his hand gripped his chest. Blake and Yang were by his side trying to help him but he held up his hand, "I'm okay. Just need to take it slower." He sat up slowly. "So, how bad was I?"**

 **"The doctors had to operate on you for a few hours. You needed two blood transfusions and three aura transfusions. You have severe burns on your arms, three cracked ribs and the bullet wound. They said it'll be a while before you're okay." Blake told him.**

"That's actually not too bad," Jaune noted, shrugging slightly at the looks he got. "Well, he literally just took a bullet through his chest. After using a sword that literally sets him on fire. After getting punched into the ground by a giant robot. Honestly it should've been much, much worse. But I get it, turns out large Aura reserves aren't only good for poison testing."

Everyone nodded until they processed his last words. _'Wait a- poison testing?!'_

They turned to look at the blond, but he was already watching the screen.

 **Jaune thought about it, "That makes sense. The burns should be gone in a day or so. But with my aura, my ribs and bullet wound might only take a week or so." He soon remembered something, "The White Fang member, did I...?"**

 **Yang looked away slightly and Blake just looked down slightly, "Yes." She said sadly.**

"I don't understand what's so shocking. I mean, we're Hunters, we are _supposed_ to fight, and sometimes fights don't end without casualties," Jaune spoke up, confused and a tad annoyed at his counterpart's reaction. Sure, killing was never easy, but they were Hunters, Grimm weren't the only thing they hunted.

Everyone else just ignored him. With a family like his, it was no shock he'd be so calm about it.

 **Jaune closed his eyes and placed a hand over them. He took a deep breath before he exhaled. "Thought so." He took his hand away. "There really wasn't a way around it and if I didn't, things coulda gotten worse." He looked up at the ceiling again.**

 **Before the conversation could continue, the door opened to reveal Ruby and Weiss. They just stared at Jaune until Ruby squealed and used her Semblance to get to his bed. She stopped just shy of the bed and looked like she was restraining herself. Jaune smiled when he figured out what was going on. "What are you doing?"**

People exchanged glances while Ruby blushed, knowing why her counterpart stopped.

 **"What?" she asked as she tilted her head slightly.**

 **"I'm in the infirmary and I don't get a hug? That's just wrong."**

"Isn't it a bit dangerous for him to get a hug now that he's in the infirmary?" Nora wondered out loud.

"It could potentially injure him now that he is in a weakened state, but I don't think anything bad will happen," Ren replied easily. "And even if it does, well, at least he's in the right place."

"Okay, now that wasn't even funny," Yang countered with a deadpan.

Ren shrugged. "But you weren't shocked, were you? That means it's working."

 **"You sure, Jaune? I don't wanna hurt you." She said, barley containing herself.**

 **"I'm a big boy. I can handle it." He held open his arms to her, "Now give me a hug, Rosebud."**

 **Without further ado, Ruby hugged Jaune and buried her face into his shoulder, "I'm so glad you're okay!" She said. Jaune just smiled wider and retuned her hug. When the broke apart, Weiss was already by his bed with a small smile.**

 **"Hey." He said with a smile. She smiled more and leaned down to hug him gently. Jaune was shocked by this but soon wrapped one of his arms around her. "Thank you, Snow Angel."**

"Am I the only one a bit crept out by the fact he calls them by their nicknames more than he does their actual names?" Weiss spoke up, frowning. She knew her other self didn't have anything against the nickname, it just felt too… intimate. "I mean, he doesn't call Ren or Nora anything and they've been friends for a decade. We met barely a few months ago and he keeps calling us those. It's just… unsettling."

Pyrrha nodded slowly. "I'm with you on this, Weiss. While I appreciate nicknames given by friends, being referred to as Pyr more than Pyrrha would be kinda weird."

"I concur. It feels like the Swordsman is pushing it a bit… but maybe it's just now," replied Winter. "He just survived a near-death experience and a coma. Maybe he just feels like calling them by his nicknames."

"And when have you ever been called 'Pyr', Pyr?" Ren spoke up with a grin. Everyone looked at him flatly, and in response he took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on, ignoring them and focusing on the screen.

Once they looked away, he put away the glasses.

 **She pulled back a bit, "You deserve more than a hug for what you did last night." She gently kissed him on the cheek before she stepped back with a blush. "So, thank you, Jaune."**

Weiss blushed when everyone looked at her. "What?! I wouldn't have done that, so don't look at me, look at her!"

"But wouldn't we still be looking at you?" Sun spoke up, perplexed.

"Yes, but it's a different me!"

 **Everyone was shocked because of that. Soon Jaune smiled at her, "Anytime." He said this while fiddling with the bandages on his arms.**

 **"How did you get those burns with your aura still intact?" Weiss asked, noticing what he was doing.**

"There are actually several ways," Ozpin spoke up. "For example, Dust, Grimm and Aura both automatically activate passive Aura, which means that anyone competent in the usage of Aura can easily bring up their Aura to defend themselves. Normal objects or attacks from people with no Aura -and I mean locked, not simply passive- can bypass passive Aura unless the user willingly activates his Aura or is a master of Aura control. Self-inflicted injuries can be healed by Aura, but normally it cannot protect yourself. Aura acts similarly to a force-field, which means that it cannot stop itself. As such, if you take a hammer and hit your finger with it, the hammer will be coated in your Aura, and thus will bypass the Aura protecting your finger. Any questions?"

"Yes, can a master protect himself from his own Aura?" asked Nora, raising her hand and jumping up and down.

"Well, if you reach a certain level of mastery, then yes. However, as far as I know, only a handful of people in the world have enough control to fold their Aura protection against itself." Ozpin took a sip of his coffee. "I am amongst those people, but for example, Qrow and James aren't despite being skilled Hunters in their own rights, probably stronger than me given my old age."

 **"My aura caused it. Lava's Elemental Feedback burns my skin from the intense heat. The longer I use it, the worse and further they spread. These aren't the worse I've gotten, so my aura should be able to heal it within a day or so. By the way, how long was I out for?" he asked.**

 **"Just over twelve hours." Weiss answered.**

 **"Wow. Less than I expected." He said before he started to get out of the bed, groaning slightly in pain.**

 **"What are you doing?" Blake asked worried.**

 **"Getting out of bed. I've been here long enough." He said standing.**

 **"That's crazy. You need rest." Weiss added.**

"I agree, while I would always encourage physical exercise as soon as possible after a period of unconsciousness, especially if caused by grave injuries, the school's nurse should be the one to tell you if you can get up or not," Goodwitch spoke up with disapproval in her voice. "He could be hurting his body even more."

 **"I was resting. Trust me, I know my body better than anyone. Since I'm awake, I should be fine as long as I don't push myself." They all just looked at him worried and he tried to ignore the looks. He noticed some of his clothes next to the bed. He started to take off his gown. "I'm gonna change, so either turn away or be prepared." He said with a smirk as he removed it.**

"That's just crude," Winter mumbled, upset at seeing his teasing attitude.

"Not to mention stupid," Jaune added as well, earning himself a few looks. "What? I'm not gonna say that doctors are all-knowing and that whenever you feel ill and go to the doctor the doctor is _always_ right, but they study medicine and anatomy and stuff for a _reason_. I know _myself_ more than anyone, but I'm pretty sure they know _my body_ better than me. Waiting out a minor strained muscle or something is okay. Going up and about after a near-death experience is just stupid. Even if the doctors said it was fine, I'd start out little by little, maybe taking an hour or two to slowly test my body."

"I'm not doctor, but I agree with Jaune," Blake nodded. "Rest, especially after such an injury, is just as important as physical exercise, if not more. Your body cannot heal properly without rest."

"But that's where Aura comes in," Ironwood countered after a second. "While physical exercise slows down its healing process, Aura can eventually heal most wounds. Although I do agree with Mr Arc, resting should take priority."

 **All the girls blushed at that. Weiss and Ruby quickly turned their backs to him, Ruby went as far to put her hands over her eyes. Blake just kept looking, they were dating and it wasn't like he was naked. Yang looked away but snuck a few looks here and there. Jaune threw on his dark blue jeans and his black t-shirt. It hurt slightly to put on the shirt but he was dealing with the pain. As soon as he did that, he sat down on the bed and started to put on his boots. "I'm decent now." He told Weiss and Ruby. They turned and still had slight blushes.**

"I don't approve of that behaviour," Goodwitch narrowed her eyes as she said that.

"Neither do I," nodded Ironwood.

"It's a little odd how he goes from stoic badass to teasing bastard in a second," even Yang had to agree. "Not that it's a fault but still…"

"Not to mention he's not playful with me or Ren…" Nora pouted, crossing her arms. "I mean, I get it, we're not in his harem, but he could joke or spend time with us too!"

The counterparts of said 'harem' all began to cough to hide their embarrassment. Not that Nora wasn't right, the Swordsman did spend very little time with his friends compared to his… potential love interests… but it was still a pretty embarrassing thing to be told.

Qrow narrowed his eyes. Could it be that the Swordsman was trying to get into his nieces' pants (both of them) by acting a mix of the stoic badass, battle-worn veteran of the world, but at the same time acting like a nice, kind and friendly dork, and at the same time like a 'suave' (he couldn't really call that 'suave') tease? All the signs were there… at least, aside from his family and his angst a while ago, their own Jaune Arc was just a dork who had no idea how to be in a relationship, even less how to tease or flirt. He was a safe boy (as in male) friend for his nieces… unless he pulled a Tai and decided to go for the harem route. Damn blondes…

 **"How are you okay with just stripping like that?" Weiss asked him.**

 **Jaune shrugged, "It's not like I was naked. Besides, you've all seen me shirtless anyways. So all you got to see was my legs but only a little bit more than when I wear shorts." He stood back up and saw Blake taking off his silver hoodie before handing it to him. "Thank you for taking care of this." He said happily as he slipped it on, he didn't bother to zip it up.**

"Corny, too corny," Cinder groaned.

"Corny, so corny," Sun teared up.

 **At that point, the door opened again to reveal NPR. Jaune smiled and waved slightly. Nora ran at Jaune and tackled him, "Jaune!" she shouted as she was hugging him tightly on the ground.**

 **"Why?" Jaune groaned out as he was on the floor. Soon Ren was there to pull Nora off of him and help him to his feet. He gave him a quick look before he nodded, knowing he was at least somewhat better now.**

"What?! Just because I'm not in your harem, Ruby gets to hug you but I don't?!" Nora exclaimed, outraged, before flying-hug-tackling Jaune to the ground. "Blasphemy shall be punished! Ultimate Affectionate Hug at Incalculable Gravity-ignoring Hyperspeed!"

Ren glanced at the now-dying Jaune, shrugged, and looked away while Jaune choked and struggled to get out of Nora's deadly embrace.

 **Pyrrha was by his side looking him up and down, "Are you okay, Jaune? Should you be out of bed?" She asked frantically.**

 **"I'm fine, Pyrrha. I'm a little sore but that'll go away." He said with a small smile.**

 **"A little sore? Jaune, you have serious burns, cracked ribs and were shot!" She said just below a shout.**

 **Jaune nodded, "I was there. The burns I knew were going to happen, that's the Elemental Feedback of Lava. The ribs and the gunshot however." Jaune shrugged as much as his ribs would allow. "They were unavoidable."**

 **"Unavoidable!? Jaune, you almost died!" Pyrrha shouted. She turned her gaze to RWBY. "If it wasn't for them…" she started.**

"She's right, by the way," Qrow began, frowning, before Yang cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, we know, we shouldn't have been so reckless and everything, blah blah blah," she waved him off, annoyed by the constant reminders. "You only told us ten times already. Jeez, give us a break."

"It's important for you to learn, Ms Xiao Long," frowned Goodwitch, glaring at her student. "A lesson I am not sure you've learned. Nor one I believe you can truly learn until it does put you in danger."

Yang shrugged again. "Hey, Hunters here, or at least in training. Danger is in the job description."

All the Hunters in the room shook their heads. There was a lot more to being Hunters than just fighting monsters. Oobleck would've scolded her if he'd been there.

 **"That's enough, Pyrrha." Jaune said with a commanding tone. "They were not the ones that shot me and if I didn't do what I did, we'd probably be having a different conversation with one of them in worse condition or possibly dead." Realization hit Pyrrha with that. "No matter what happens to me, I'll risk everything to save someone I care for. Even if it costs me my life." Everyone, besides Ren and Nora, was shocked by this and Jaune walked to the door before he stopped. He turned to them. "Almost everything good in my life seems to get taken away by this world. But, I refuse to lose you seven. No matter what pain I have to go through." He said with a sad smile before he left the room and left the rest to their thoughts.**

"Okay, too much," Blake commented, annoyed. One thing was being protective, another was acting like an emo anime protagonist with a tragic backstory. "Lose the tragic hero attitude and then it's fine."

Jaune shrugged. "Yeah, I kinda agree. No point in saying that since he just proved it."

"Maybe he did it to stop Pyrrha's anger?"

"How is 'Hey, keep in mind that this is nothing, I'll always jump into danger headfirst if one of you gets in danger' going to keep her from getting _madder_?" Ruby asked teasingly.

"That's… actually a good point," conceded the taller redhead. "But at least I would be mad at him, not at them."

"Or maybe you'd just be fine since you're included in the ones he'd die for," Cinder spoke up, annoyed by the stupid -in her opinion- conversation. "Can we go on now?"

 **He was walking around the courtyard now. He wasn't mad at any of them but them constantly worrying about him wouldn't do them or him any good. They needed some space right now. Although, he had no idea on what he was going to do right now. Training and working his Semblance were out of the question. Plus, they all knew his usual hiding places. "Jaune! Dude!" he turned to see Sun and Neptune running towards him.**

"That's like, super hypocritical," Nora pointed out with a frown. "I mean, he almost gets himself killed for them, but they cannot even worry about him a little or try to keep him in bed to rest without him calling them over-the-top."

"She's right, the Swordsman seems to have a very skewed perception of reasonable worry," nodded Ironwood. "While I can appreciate his heroism, people are supposed to worry about others. Had they followed his same philosophy, now they'd be gravely injured or dead because they would've tried to go without him."

 **He raised a hand to them. "Hey, guys. You two made it out alright then. Last time I saw you, you got knocked off the highway by that robot."**

 **"Yeah. We survived the fall without a scratch. We thought you guys would manage without us so we stopped by a noodle stand we found. Best noodles ever." Sun said cheerily.**

 **"What happened though? We haven't seen you guys at all when we came back. This is the first time we've seen any of you." Neptune asked.**

 **Jaune shrugged slightly. "Yeah. We've been in the infirmary."**

 **"Wait, did any of RWBY get hurt?" Sun asked concerned.**

"Why was that your first thought?!" Weiss exclaimed, miffed that Sun considered her team to be likely to get hurt.

"Hey, it was either one of you or the Swordsman, who's basically a professional Hunter in terms of just about everything when it comes to fighting. Skill, power, variety, Aura…" the Faunus shrugged lightly. "It just sounded less likely for him to get hurt. Guess I was wrong."

 **Jaune shook his head, "No. There fine. I was the one that needed medical attention."**

 **They soon noticed the bandages on his hands and some of the ones sticking above the top of his shirt. "Dude, what the hell happened to you?" Sun asked.**

 **"Just some burns on my arms. Along with a few cracked ribs from a punch from the robot and a bullet wound from the White Fang inside of it." He answered offhandedly. The two were just staring wide eyed.**

The comment earned him another glare from Blake. _'That reply stinks of purposeful nonchalant boast. I don't like it.'_

Unbeknownst to her, the others were having pretty similar thoughts, except for Cinder, who didn't mind it. To be honest, even though it hadn't been an outright show of power, the Fake Maiden could still appreciate when someone showed their superiority by proving their worth. In her eyes, the Swordsman had just proved his superiority to Sun and Neptune. Not that it took a lot to be superior to that love-obsessed idiot…

 **"How are you walking around right now?" Sun asked amazed.**

 **"Should you even be out of the infirmary?" Neptune asked with the same awe.**

 **"I'm too stubborn to stay dead and my aura helps with a lot. Large reservoirs of aura and accelerated healing can really help, that's why the Arc family is awesome." He said with a smirk. "And probably not but I hate infirmaries and hospitals, so much. So, I left before anyone knew otherwise. And now saying that, I think I should head to Vale before someone drags me back there. Wanna hang?"**

"Again, that's incredibly reckless," Goodwitch spoke up. "Students, if anyone of you tries to pull the same stunt, I will be the one to personally drag you there and literally bind you to your bed. Am I clear?"

"Yes Professor Goodwitch!" the students chorused. Qrow joined in before he remembered he wasn't a student, while Winter caught herself before she could say 'yes ma'am!'.

 **The two of them looked at each other and followed him to the nearest airship. On the way down, Jaune gave them details on what happened during the fight. They were just amazed that he took down another of the Paladin's single handily. And they were even further shocked when they heard that he jumped in front of a bullet meant for someone on RWBY. They were getting off the airship when Sun whistled, "Jaune, you are by far the most badass person I know."**

 **Jaune waved it off, "Not really. I just didn't wanna risk anyone on RWBY getting hurt and taking the bullet was just instinctual."**

 **"You just naturally risk your life on reflex?" Neptune asked in shock.**

 **Jaune sighed, "I'll give you the short story but, yeah. I've lost a lot of people I cared for in my life. So now, if there is anything I can do to save the people I have left, I won't hesitate to do it."**

"Okay, may I just point out he's only lost two people, Gin and his girlfriend?" Jaune spoke up, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not saying I wanted him to lose more, but I don't really think people get _that_ bad of a trauma after two deaths, one of which he wasn't even present for. Not to mention he had Ren and Nora all along, and I'm sure both of them would be great emotional support…"

"No, it doesn't matter how many people you lose, some people just react in a certain way to loss," Ironwood replied, having seen all the many ways his soldiers reacted to losing friends or family. "He might just be that kind of person."

"I still think there's no need to say that out loud, we're not in a movie, no need to make some grand statement or anything," Blake interjected, her cat ears twitching.

 **"Damn, now I feel bad that we didn't come help out." Sun said guiltily.**

 **"Don't worry about it. I probably would've done the same thing if you guys were there or not."**

 **"Wish we could make it up to you though." Neptune added.**

 **They all heard Jaune's stomach growl loudly. They all looked at each other before Jaune laughed. "Well if you take me to that noodle stand, we'll call it even. I haven't eaten since before we left yesterday."**

 _'What is this, an anime, where people's stomachs only make themselves known as if on cue?'_ No points for guessing who that was.

 **They took him there and Jaune ordered the biggest bowl of noodles you could imagine. He ate the bowl ravenously. Sun and Neptune just laughed at him. As soon as he was done, he asked for a second bowl followed by a third to Sun and Neptune's shock. As he finished the third helping, he burped and soon had a toothpick in his mouth. "Well, I have to say, those were definitely the best noodles ever." He said with a content smile.**

 **"Jaune?" He turned to Sun. "How did you manage to eat that much?"**

"I'd throw up before the second," Jaune said matter-of-factly. "I normally don't eat much, and those bowls are _immense_. I probably wouldn't be able to finish one."

"You should eat more, even Weiss could finish one of those," Yang teased him, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Ouch! Yang, that hurts!"

"Oh, don't be such a baby." The blonde girl laughed when he ruffled his feathers, annoyed. "Do that again! Oh my god, do that again! You look like a grumpy chicken!"

Jaune huffed and turned away, ruffling his feathers once more, as the other students joined in on the laughter.

 **"Well, I haven't eaten since yesterday and my aura has been working overtime to try and fix the damage done to my body. So, I had to eat a lot more than normal to replenish myself. Normally, one of these would've been enough." He commented as he placed lien on the table for his meal. They soon headed back to Beacon. On the airship, Jaune felt his motion sickness coming back but it was very weak compared to the usual. Either he was getting used to flying or he was just too weak to puke his guts out. He chuckled slightly at the latter.**

 **When they got back to Beacon, it was already dark and they decided to call it a night. Jaune started to make his way to his dorm. On the way he passed the fountain and found Yang sitting on it, waiting for him. Jaune sighed and sat down beside her. "Shoulda known one of you would be waiting for me."**

 **Yang just gave him a small smile, "Well, you did disappear and we couldn't contact you."**

"Jerk!" Ruby shouted, angry that he'd just up and left without telling anyone, leaving them all in the dark to worry about him, just because he didn't want to remain in bed and they were trying to take care of him while he was healing. "He's a jerk! I take back everything nice I said about him! He just left us the moment we tried to help him, and after lecturing us on the importance of letting others help, too! Jerk! You don't do that to friends!"

"I agree with Ms Rose, here, the Swordsman's actions were anything but nice or proper," Winter nodded, her eyes narrowed in irritation at Jaune's counterpart.

The others mumbled their agreement as well, a chorus of 'yeah' and 'that was so not nice' and 'should've strapped him to the bed' echoing in the air around them.

 **Jaune shrugged, "You guys never gave me back my scroll."**

 **"Got me there. So, where did you head off to?"**

 **"I ran into Sun and Neptune. We hung out downtown and they took me to a noodle stand. Just kinda relaxed. I thought it'd be best to give you all some space for a while. Let you calm down a bit."**

 **"That was probably for the best. Pyrrha has calmed down and has apologized profusely for what she said." Yang informed him and he nodded in response. They were quiet for a while before she broke the silence. "So, besides giving us space, why did you leave?"**

 **"I appreciate the fact that you guys were worried about me but the whole thing reminded me of my past." He said this as he ran his hand through his hair. "My family acted very similar when I got hurt all those years ago. I was slightly worried that history was repeating itself. Crazy as that sounds."**

"That's not really an excuse. Instead of letting his friends help, he preached but didn't practise," Ironwood pointed out.

"Well, it's better than nothing," shrugged Qrow, taking a sip from his flask.

 **Jaune then felt something in his hand and looked down to see Yang holding it with her own. He looked back up to her. "That's understandable. But could you blame us? You almost died, Jaune."**

 **He nodded weakly, "I know. I won't apologize though."**

 **"I'm not asking you to. But it was kinda crappy to drop a bomb on me like that and almost die before I can give you an answer."**

 **Jaune blushed slightly, "Right. So, um, what do you think?" he turned to her nervously. She leant in and kissed him. Jaune's eyes were wide before he leant into the kiss and returned the pressure to her hand. They ended the kiss and just smiled at each other.**

"Boooooooo!" Everyone turned to Jaune, shocked and confused by his angry outburst. "Boooooo! Go to hell, Swordsman! You and your easygoing and your stupid acceptance and everything harem-related that includes you!"

"What's gotten into him?" Pyrrha wondered out loud.

"He's probably still stressed about the whole 'multiple-girlfriends' thing, and he's annoyed because the Swordsman isn't facing the same problem," Ozpin replied calmly, almost nonchalantly.

 **"You almost dying on me, made me realize just how much I care for you. And scared me to death to think that I could never tell you or truly know how you felt about me. So if you think you can handle me and Blake, we can give this a shot." She gave him a wink and a loving smile.**

 **Jaune chuckled, "I guess I have no choice then." He gave her the same smile and they kissed again. Soon Yang wrapped her arms around his neck and started to run her tongue along his lips. Jaune smiled before he wrapped his arms around her back and joined her tongue in its endeavor. The kiss was hot and heavy but neither complained. After a few minutes the two broke apart and were breathing heavily. Jaune leant in and gave her a gentle kiss to her neck, which made her shiver. They smiled at each other before they got up and made their way to the dorms. Yang had wrapped her left arm around Jaune's right arm and had their fingers intertwined. She had her head resting on his shoulder and they both wore very happy smiles.**

"Is it over?" Weiss asked as she and most of the others had turned away the moment the kiss got steamy.

"Yeah." To no one's surprise, Blake had been the one to keep watching with the least embarrassment. Her books contained that and much worse. No smut though! "You can look now," she told them the moment the onscreen Jaune and Yang went in for another kiss, and then enjoyed their hisses as they turned away once more.

 **When they made it to their rooms they looked into each other's eyes before they kissed again, this one chaste. When they separated, Jaune told her what he thought with a smile. "I love you, Yang."**

 **She gave him the same smile, "I love you, Jaune."**

 **They bid the other a good night before retiring for the night. Jaune was still shocked that now he had two of the most gorgeous girls he had ever met as girlfriends but he was never happier.**

"Still boo," Jaune mumbled under his breath, glaring at the blackening screen as if he could reach out and murder the Swordsman as a righteous angel of monogamy. "Damn me makes it look so easy…"

"Maybe it is easy…" Sun whispered in his ear, trying to pretend to be his shoulder-angel.

"Gaah!" Jaune jumped three feet up in the air at the sudden voice in his ear, before glaring at the monkey Faunus, who was smiling innocently at him. "Sun, what the hell?!"

"Just saying, maybe it's not as hard or complicated as you think it is…" the boy threw him one last smile before he walked back over to Cinder, who groaned when he plopped down next to her.

"You really can't just leave me alone, can you?" she growled at him.

"Nope."

The other students, meanwhile. Stretched their stiff limbs. "Man, I'm getting tired," yawned Nora. "How long have we been watching these things, exactly?"

"No idea, but I'm tired too." Ren grabbed the pillow he was sitting on, laid down and put it under his head before yawning as well. "So goodnight." And with that, he fell asleep.

"I think I'm going to try and follow his example," Blake said as she imitated the boy.

Soon, everyone was laying down, either asleep or resting. All after only a couple of dozens or so hours of watching an alternative universe. Amateurs.

 ** _There's a hidden reference to My Hero Academia (or Boku No Hero Academia, whatever you want to call it) in this story, props to the first one to find it and point it out!_**

 ** _K. E. V._**


	40. AN - Discontinued

**AN – DISCONTINUED**

 **Yes, I am sorry to say that this story has been discontinued, aka I stopped writing it. I'm sorry for whoever still liked it, but I write for fun and writing a story I considered below my standards style-wise and content-wise (or in this case reaction-wise) is something I just can't do.**

 **However, I will tell you all my reasons why – or if you don't care you can just close this tab, curse at me and then just shrug and go read another (better) story. Honestly, and with this I'm talking to all the reviews who spoke against this story, I am aware of just how horrible this story turned out. I am. I just didn't see any solution that didn't involve spending twice as much of my free time on it.**

 **\\-\\-\**

 **Reasons**

 **1 – Bashing.  
** This got out of hand almost immediately, with Neptune. Now, while I don't like Neptune, I can admit he didn't deserve the way I twisted and ruined his character even more. My actions were unforgivable. I bashed Neptune for what? Dozens of chapters? He really isn't the jealous type, or the envious type. He's basically a cooler, more skilled, smoother version of Jaune – still used for comedic relief, more of a ladies' man, but otherwise pretty similar once you think about it. I turned him into a Chaotic Evil NPC who had no other personality than being jealous or envious. I made a huge mistake and carried it on for dozens of chapters – and I'm the only one to blame.

But even though I'm disgusted by what I did with Neptune, to the point of making him go insane just for the sake of removing him from the story (and added crack, _see reason 2 – Crack_ ), he's not the 'crown jewel' of my bashing mistake.

That belongs to TES itself. I'm the goddamn idiot who was bashing a story he likes (because I _do_ like TES, it's how LordHellPhoenix and I started to talk) and couldn't even see the bashing was stealing away the reactions from everyone. And that, that is completely unforgivable. What the characters point out may or may not be the harsh truth, but this was a reaction story, not a criticizing story, so.

Thankfully, Phoenix didn't feel insulted by it, because God knows how much he had the _right_ to feel insulted after how this story turned out. He simply pointed it out as one of the reasons why he stopped reading this story (we'll come to that in _reason 3 – One-Shot Reactions_ ).

 **2 – Crack  
** Now, you may be about to say: "But crack is fun!". And you'd be right, crack is used only for fun (surely not for drama!). However, there is a method to using crack. In An Extension of the Soul, or at least its latest chapters, crack is used to enhance the story's pre-existing humour, not replace it (either the humour or the story itself).

In this story, crack has unfortunately slipped through the cracks (pun not intended) and infected the whole story. Every two seconds there's something stupid or nonsensical just for crack. That won't do. Especially when crack and bashing are going hand to hand, like with Neptune, or in a much lesser way with Team RWBY's recklessness.

 **3 – One-shot Reactions  
** As you might've noticed, there are a lot of reactions that are nothing more than "comment – reply – possible reply – possible reply" and nothing else. Every "reaction break" (as in, when the bold text stops) may have one or two or three of these one-shot reactions, but eventually the problem is the same – it feels as if you're watching a movie with a bunch of very annoying and talkative people who won't shut up with their little comments.

I'm sure we all hate that, and those who don't hate it, it's probably because they do it themselves, heh ;-)

This story became that, along other things. Just a bunch of nonsensical one-shot reactions who are a pain to read and ten times worse to write. There is no topic to talk about, there is no logic being followed, nothing, just little comments and their replies. Which is _fine_ for reaction stories, but only as long as you actually write other stuff too, or at least make them funny. I did neither, at least in the latest chapters.

 **4 – Unexisting Style**  
This story had no writing style. Not a stable one, at least. It just jumped from complete crack to drama, to serious, to comedy, to I-don't-know-what. Looking back, I'm disgusted and ashamed that I fed you all such a jumble of styles/themes/whatever-you-want-to-call-them.

In addition, remember the gifts from the authors from waaaaaay back? I do. I've been thinking, and thinking, and thinking about bringing them back, but every time I just couldn't bring myself to do it, for whatever the reason. I'm really sorry about that, by the way, especially to the guys who've sent gifts.

 **5 – OCs for Everyone!**  
Yay, we got a cast full of OCs! Wait, what do you mean those were the canon characters?

This should be pretty self-explanatory, but I'll say it nonetheless – the OoCness in this story is cringe-worthy. No, even more, it's indecent. As I write this, I literally just asked my twin to punch myself in the stomach (not that hard, don't worry, I'm fine) because of what I did. I mean, I go around preaching that one should keep their characters coherent, and then what do I do? I make a horrid mess of my own? Can I even call myself an author any more? (the answer is YES, definitely, just because this story didn't work out doesn't mean I'm not good at writing).

 **6 – Hey, Have You Seen My Plot?**  
Yes, I'm adding more and more humour as I go and accept the fact I messed up and this story is dead because of that. It helps me cope.

This story was born with some kind of semi-secondary-plot. It was a reaction _story_ , not a _reaction_ story, if you get what I mean. Where did that go? After JNPR vs RWBY, this story only kept one thing outside the reactions – the relationships ( _see reason 7 – Harem For Sale_ ). Everything else got flushed down the toilet (which means you might be able to find it in the ocean or something).

 **7 – Harem for Sale**  
I don't write harems. Not because I hate them, or find them wrong (as long as love is mutual and all parties are fully aware of what they're doing, I don't care), or cannot physically write them. But because I don't understand them. When I don't understand something, I look it up and study it until I can understand enough to write it. But with harems, I can't, because people can't be studied online and despite knowing a guy who was in a relationship with 5 women, I never asked for details and he himself said it was mainly just for fun, nothing serious.

I don't understand harems, and yet I tried to write one. Initially this was going to be a Lancaster story, simply because at the time I was a Lancaster fan (now I don't have many preferences as long as it's well-written), but then I thought to ask Phoenix and he said he would appreciate it if I made the relationship the same as TES (aka, harem). I, as the naive writer I was back then, accepted, thinking I could manage.

Btw, the blame is one me and me alone, Phoenix never pushed me or anything. I overestimated myself (or rather estimated myself differently).

But since I can't write them, this relationship went from "taking it slow" to "gotta think" to "on standby, please wait". Which is horrible. Also, the confessions just felt rushed, OoC and fake.

(FYI, I write OoC because it's Out of Character, not Out Of Character, but most people write OOC and I can't fault them for that, it is easier)

 **8 – Main Quest: Epic Fail**  
Back to the title screen.

This story was born as a gift to my friend Phoenix. Yeah, now you might read it and say "Gift? Man, a punch in the face would've been better", but at first it wasn't meant to go like this, obviously – no author wants their stories to fail like this and I am no different.

But yeah, long story short, Phoenix doesn't like this story any longer, for all the reasons listed above. So he kindly let me know he wouldn't continue to read the story, to spare me from disappointment later. Ripped off the band-aid, basically. And I'm glad he did, because I agree, and because I appreciate the honesty it took.

So, if this story was meant for him, and he doesn't like it any more, then what's the point of it any more? I mean, had it been a good story, then I would've kept on writing (probably), but a story as bad as this? No, it's not worth it. It's better to use this time for writing other stuff, or doing other stuff, or simply sleeping (faraway dream...).

 **9 – if (will == 0) { ViewingTES = discontinued; }**  
And finally, onto my own personal reason. Aside from agreeing with all the points aforementioned, there is one extra point that I, as the author, have to add.

This story was hell to write.

As I said, I like TES – it was one of the stories that convinced me to try my hand at being an author! I just read it and said "Well, this proves fanfictions can be pretty long and interesting. It's no physical book but it's still a story. Why not write a story of my own?"

No, TES wasn't the problem. The reactions were.

Simply put, unless the reactions vary, I don't like reaction stories. WFM (Watching Future Mistakes, a HTTYD watch-movie1 story) is a bit easier because with everything that happens in HTTYD1, I always have something to write about. Also because with it being canon, I can just read fanfictions and see what other authors have pointed out about the movie, without having to over-analyse the movie myself every time.

With ViewingTES, I ran out of reactions to fill the gaps, not because there were no more, but because I stopped writing the canon characters and I wrote more like what _I_ would've commented. Then even that ran out, so I just starting criticizing because it's easier.

Was it right? No. Am I human? Yes, and as such I sometimes take the shortcut too.

Due to the lack of reactions in my reaction-pool, every time I had to write a reaction was hell, because I had no idea what to write.

Then why did I start, then?

Well, that's my fault too. While chatting with Phoenix, he mentioned the fact that I had offered to write this story. I didn't remember doing so, but I naively accepted without thinking if I actually could. Also, I'd never written long reaction stories before (Remnants of Dimensions eventually had the same problem), so I wasn't prepared for it.

This, added to stress from other sources, definitely ruined this story, didn't it?

Jeez, looks like it's all my fault… though why wouldn't it be, I'm the author!

 **\\-\\-\**

 **Final note**

 **So yeah, that's why. I'm really, really sorry everyone. This is my first time doing something like this (I did discontinue stories before but never when I got this far) so thank you for having listened to my rant.**

 **But let's not make this a depressing goodbye note. Instead, let's remember these wise words:**

 **"Never let mistakes push you into hopelessness, for they are what teaches you to do better. Instead, learn from them so that one day, you won't commit** **them any longer."**

 **Until next story,**

 **Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh**

 **P. S. - to wash off the bad taste this AN and this story might've left in your mouth, go read TES, the original work. It's much better. XD And leave Phoenix a review, or a Fav and Follow, if you would.**


End file.
